The Hysterical Inventiveness of ‘I Love Boosters’ Is Hilarious and Subversive

The new independent film “I Love Boosters” promulgates several anti-corporate, even radical, ideas. If these messages turned off potential moviegoers, it would be a shame as it’s also one of the most hilarious, inventive films of the year. Using eye-popping color, outlandish outfits, salty dialogue, absurdist asides, provocative sidebars, surrealist sci-fi, and more, writer-director Boots Riley has designed a sharp satire that not only wears its critical views of the fashion industry and capitalism proudly but looks good doing it while oozing fun and frivolity. The wild comedy owes much of its success to its ace cast, which includes the always charming Keke Palmer as heroine Corvette, the commanding Naomi Ackie as bestie Sade, and the appealing Taylour Paige as other friend Mariah. Together, the three black actresses portray a trio of “boosters” who rob the local Bar Area stores of Metro Designer, a type of American Apparel/Urban Outfitters chain that stocks pieces of solely one color at each location. This brand is run by Christie, a ruthless designer who takes streetwear, with its bold shapes and vibrant hues, and turns it into high-priced garments. As played by Demi Moore, Christie is part Donna Karan, Cruella de Vil, and Miranda Priestly.Speaking of the fictional Ms. Priestly, Mr. Riley’s film comes out this week as “The Devil Wears Prada 2” nears $200 million at the domestic box office. With its critique of exorbitant prices, cultural appropriation, and fashion-as-art hierarchy, it could be interpreted as a rebuke of that big Hollywood movie and its slavish devotion to luxury. Indeed, the article that causes a crisis for Runway magazine early on in “Devil” could conceivably have been about Christie’s company. Yet the latest film is also too playful to serve as a scold, because what it most imparts is joy. More than anything else, including its semi-socialist, collectivist message, “I Love Boosters” is a celebration of fashion, both high and low, and of creativity and imagination. For even as it pulls at the seams of certain business practices, its plot and themes conversely rejoice in consumerist culture and hustling — both the honest and dishonest type. With its relentless inventiveness, the picture ultimately plays like an ode to human ingenuity and street smarts, reflecting its own limited budget yet buoyant direction and clever sensibilities.In the opening sequence, we find Corvette at a nightclub as she meets a handsome stranger on the dance floor. But what begins as a seduction scene ends up, in actuality, as a sales pitch, with Mr. Riley effectively establishing the film’s flippant feel and its exploration of how commerce has supplanted communication and connection. A little later, we’re in the middle of one of her heists, with Sade at her side. Other accomplices create a distraction, and the two soon hightail it out of Metro Designer with countless pilfered articles of clothing on their person — Corvette in particular looking like a pink marshmallow woman in her stuffed jumpsuit.Despite her success in robbery and reselling, our heroine is depressed and squatting in a closed-down fast food chicken restaurant. She’s also a budding designer who reveres whom she steals from, so much so that when Christie calls her burglary crew “low class urban bitches” on television, Corvette isn’t overly offended. It’s only when she realizes that Christie has stolen, in a bit of poetic justice, one of her designs that she becomes set on revenge. But the trio eventually meets someone else also bent on sending Christie a message: Jianhu (Poppy Liu), a worker in a Chinese factory that makes Metro clothing. And Jianhu has not only factory conditions and labor rights on her mind but a strange new invention at her fingertips, a device with three modes — teleporter, situational accelerator, and deconstruct—and which spews what looks to be slime. If that last bit of explication seems too out there, it’s actually consistent with the film’s overall zaniness. Enjoyment is predicated on getting on Mr. Riley’s wacky wavelength. In scene after scene, farcical elements combine with irony and a touch of reality to create hilarity, such as when we see Christie at her atelier/apartment in a ridiculously leaning skyscraper (a nod to New York’s own leaning tower?), or when store manager Grayson (Will Poulter) keeps setting the in-store music to excessively loud. An outrageous sex scene featuring LaKeith Stanfield, who plays “Pinky Ring Guy,” will have many viewers howling with laughter and dying to tell their friends about afterwards.The heap of overt and subtle ideas and issues that arise from such scenes — topics ranging from dialectical materialism and A.I. to freight transportation and toxic masculinity — is commendable, yet many come off as underexplored while rendering the narrative unfocused. This flaw was what marred Mr. Riley’s first film, 2018’s similarly madcap “Sorry to Bother You,” particularly during its third act. His newest also contains a frantic finale, one in which the thieving trio join forces with Jianhu, and the director cuts between scenes at a fashion show, in a Chinese factory, and to a chase sequence with miniature sets and puppet-form characters. While the ending is meant to be read as an actionable tale of economic reform, the film’s most trenchant observation ties Corvette’s theft and rebellion to egotism, solipsism, and distraction, suggesting the often performative aspects of modern protest. Even more memorable, though, besides the film’s hysterical whimsicality, are the costumes designed by Shirley Kurata, the day-glo cinematography by Natasha Braier, and the outstanding team of professionals behind the actors’ makeup, hair, and wigs. These exaggerated, colorful elements do more than just accessorize the story; they represent its true heart, going beyond Mr. Riley’s unionizing to boost individuality and industry.

The Hysterical Inventiveness of ‘I Love Boosters’ Is Hilarious and Subversive

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