THE REEL: Sorry to Bother You        

Sorry to Bother You is an absurdist dark comedy film movie about Cassius Green (played by Lakeith, a young, disgruntled and slightly paranoidunemployed African American who applies for a telemarketing job.

His friend Salvador (Jermaine Fowler) has given him tips on how he can get to work at the same company he works at, RegalView. Cassius gets the job and is already beginning to think about how he can get to the next level so that he and his girlfriend Detroit (Tessa Thompson) can move out of his uncle Sergio’s (Terry Crews) garage.

NOT AN EASY TASK

However, he finds out that making sales over the telephone is not an easy task like he thought it was going to be.

He keeps getting calls hang up on him by potential clients. Just when he feels he is at his at his wits end, his work desk mate Langston (Danny Glover) gives him a tip that will give him an almost guaranteed sale if done right.

He has to bring out his inner white voice in order to hold the customers’ attention long enough for him to read out the sales script, and make the sales pitch.

After practising this a few times, Cassius actually starts raking in the sales and his profile in the work place starts soaring.

As the management in the company notes his talent, so do his co-workers and they want him to side with them so they can press RegalView for better pay and working terms. Cassius is torn between the two options, and the pressure is made even bigger by his rebel girlfriend who is all for bringing down one of RegalView’s biggest clients,WorryFree. WorryFree offer a life of paid bills, and with free food and lodging, but at the cost of a lifetime work contract.

This practice is deemed legal and not equivalent to slavery, contrary to what radical group called The Left Eye believe WorryFree is doing, and they hold protests and vandalise their advertisements frequently.

Now, Cassius has to make up his mind and his conscience and do what’s either right by him or what is right by his friends, colleagues and girlfriend.

The movie is written and directed by Boots Riley in his directorial debut.

What was interesting about the film is how the movie seems to be siding with new age woke philosophies of equity and fairness but at the same time poking fun at how, when taken to the most extreme levels, it can be nonsensical, ironic as well as a nuisance.

At the same time, it looks at capitalism and the extent to which capitalistic people will go to rake in the bucks. Although the notions are sometimes out of this world and purely fictional, some things will make you sit back and think about your life and society in general.

The kudos and thumbs down to this movie was just the “white voices”. Of course, it was done by voice over artistes but why couldn’t they just get white people with the same voice tone as the actors? In the beginning, and a lot of the places where it was applied, it was hilarious but in some other places it was simply annoying. Ironically, in the movie there’s a scene where Cassius uses his white voice on Detroit unintentionally and she tells him to stop using his white voice because it’s annoying to hear. Overall, the movie is funny, original and simply a breath of fresh air to film. Be warned that strong language use, and sexual and nudity scenes.