Rapper-turned-filmmaker Boots Riley turns in his sophomore feature nearly a decade after his debut, Sorry to Bother You (2018). His debut was a black comedy or satire about the importance and power of unionizing or collective bargaining against corporate exploitation and corporate corruption. There's also a theme of racism and inherent white supremacy that Riley also tackles. That film also features a late-in-the-story reveal that pushes Riley's narrative into the surreal or the fantastical. The film hints at that surreal aspect, but the reveal solidifies the fantastical world is exactly that. His sophomore film here deals with a lot of the same themes and has a third act reveal that also confirms the surreal aspects, though arguably that confirmation seemingly comes before that third act.
Keke Palmer (One of Them Days and Nope) stars as Corvette, even though her real name is Cassandra. She's an aspiring fashion designer. She's a huge fan of a clothing maven who lives in the same San Francisco Bay area. The problem is that Corvette is currently homeless, squatting in a closed-down chicken restaurant. She was also an inmate and feels like that she doesn't have a legitimate road to pursue. She's instead turned to a life of crime. She's not doing anything too notorious. She's basically a shoplifter. Yet, she only targets specific stores, high-end boutiques.
Demi Moore (The Substance and Landman) co-stars as Christie Smith, the owner of Metro Designers, the aforementioned boutiques that Corvette is targeting. Christie lives in a skyscraper in San Francisco. The building is titled like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Her floor is slanted or crooked and anyone who visits struggles with sliding when walking across it. Otherwise, Christie is the living, breathing embodiment of corporate greed and corporate sociopathy. She doesn't care about the people under her, especially the factory workers who produce her products, often at peril of their own lives.
Corvette and her crew rob Christie's stores for monetary reasons. Corvette shoplifts and then re-sales the clothes. However, it gets to a point where Corvette no longer wants recompense. She wants revenge. Corvette starts to learn about the ways in which Christie mistreats those that work under her. It's not just at the factories in China, but it's also at her outlets or retail shops. Corvette gets a job at one of those shops, so she experiences first-hand the abuse.
Taylour Paige (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Zola) plays Mariah, a fellow shoplifter who squats in the same, closed-down restaurant as Corvette. Naomi Ackie (Sorry, Baby and Blink Twice) plays Sade, another shoplifter who does heists with Corvette. Sade is arguably Corvette's best friend. In many scenes, we see Corvette operating with her crew and her so-called best friend, but the friendship isn't developed as much as in One of Them Days, the last big-screen comedy, starring Keke Palmer. I don't think it's as developed as in Sorry, Baby, which was the last film in which I saw Naomi Ackie. Yet, at one point, Palmer's Corvette says she's lonely, so her friendships are meant to have distance to them.
The film is less concerned with developing the relationships, as it is about its comedic set-pieces. Riley's character development was less important to him than his flights of fancy or the big bold colors that he weaponizes in almost every frame. Lakeith Stanfield who was the star of Sorry to Bother You returns in a small, supporting role. It's a role that simply has him being eye candy meant to seduce anyone he encounters. Eventually, he's revealed to be another flight of fancy. It would've been one thing if that flight of fancy were integral to the overall plot, but Stanfield's character is only tangential and at most an aside to the bigger themes at play.
Rated R for strong sexual content, nudity, language, and brief drug use.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 53 mins.
In theaters.
