NEW YORK, July 4, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – With its dystopian story of racial
exploitation behind the veneer of modern America, “Sorry to Bother You,” the
first movie by the rapper Boots Riley, is showing the fresh vitality in
African American cinema.
The movie, which hits US theaters on Friday, comes a year after the
runaway success of “Get Out,” the first feature film by Jordan Peele about a
town of wealthy white people who conspire to implant themselves into African
American bodies.
“Sorry to Bother You,” also made on a small budget, marks a new outlet for
the militant voice of Riley, best known as the frontman of The Coup, the
politically engaged and critically praised hip-hop group.
With echoes of science-fiction classic “Metropolis,” the film focuses on
exploitation at a telemarketing firm, whose workers are crammed into the
basement as executives work on floors above them in vast rooms bathed in
light.
Separating them is an elevator, which becomes the setting for several
comical scenes. The hero Cassius — played by Lakeith Stanfield, who also
starred in “Get Out” — can only ascend in the elevator, and the symbolic
social ladder, as he switches into a “white voice.”
– New settings for race –
Much like “Get Out,” set in a placid town where the villain is said to
have voted for Barack Obama, “Sorry to Bother You” shines a light not on
police brutality or other more obvious issues in Donald Trump’s America but
instead looks at racism in ostensibly safe confines.
In “Sorry to Bother You,” the CEO of fictitious corporation WorryFree
reflects the worst traits of a Silicon Valley executive, a visionary who
dreams of uber-workers who are half-human, half-horse.
Riley — the son of Chicago labor activists who has spent his life on the
fringes of Silicon Valley in Oakland, California — searched for several
years to find an audience for his screenplay. He first turned “Sorry to
Bother You” into a 2012 album by The Coup which merged rap delivery with live
orchestration.
The 47-year-old first-time director said it was an uphill battle to be
taken seriously in film.
It’s “as difficult as it would be if your favorite saxophone player said
he wanted to build your house. You are a musician with a script — who wants
to read that?” he told AFP.
The film pays tribute to several social movements of recent years
including Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street, in which Riley was
active.
It is too early to tell if “Sorry to Bother You,” which won acclaim at the
Sundance Film Festival in January, will see the same success as “Get Out” —
let alone “Black Panther,” the much-larger budget film from Marvel about an
African super-hero that has quickly become one of the highest-grossing movies
of all time.
But cast members are saluting the rise of such films as proof that, some
30 years after the breakthrough of Spike Lee’s racial drama “Do the Right
Thing,” African American cinema is dynamic, original and nuanced.
Tessa Thompson, who plays Cassius’ girlfriend Detroit in “Sorry to Bother
You,” voiced hope that more movies would follow, saying that black cinema’s
problem had never been a lack of talent.
“It really has to do with a lack of opportunity and a perceived lack of an
audience. What you see with ‘Get Out’ is that there is an audience for it —
and the audience, by the way, is not just black,” said Thompson, whose
previous films have included 2014’s historical saga “Selma” and last year’s
action flick “Thor: Ragnarok.”
Stanfield said that African American films were showing they can be
“imaginative and crazy” — and also simply fun.
“You don’t have to come see us talk about our place in America and cry all
the time,” he said. “You can leave the theater feeling hopeful, like this
film makes me feel, and still talk about the deep things that affect us every
day.”