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Focus Hip HopI Love Boosters by Boots Riley | My Thoughts
Yesterday I saw Boots Riley’s latest film in theaters for the second time. I wanted to write something about it immediately after I first saw it on May 22nd, but I didn’t really feel like I had the words to describe why I loved it so much. I feel more comfortable trying now after watching it again. This isn’t exactly a full movie review. I mean, I don’t really do full on film reviews in the first place, but if I did I would want it to be as detailed as possible in the same way that I do full album reviews. This is just gonna be a general purge of thoughts I have about the film itself as well as the surrounding media.
https://youtu.be/I1xZegSgN8w?si=3SmAwVCB8LaKYgqV
Before I even saw the film, I was anticipating it heavily. I didn’t know what it was about. I hadn’t seen any trailers. I didn’t even know who the actors were aside from LaKeith Stanfield. I was not aware that people like Taylour Paige, Will Poulter, or Don Cheadle were involved. The only reason I had to be excited about it was the fact that it was created by Boots Riley. I first started getting into his work in 2017 when I started college at Pace University in New York City. In the very first class that I ever attended—the introductory “University 101” course—I introduced myself and told the whole class about my blog. My professor/advisor, Eddis Miller, asked me who my favorite artists were and I said names like Danny Brown, Nas, Ka, Kendrick Lamar, etc. He asked me if I had ever listened to The Coup, and I told him that I’d heard of them, but hadn’t listened yet. To make a long story short, the resulting conversation is what made me pull the trigger on finally listening to their music. Then one day I think I was watching the BET Hip Hop Awards or something adjacent to that, and I witnessed a commercial for Sorry to Bother You for the first time. I didn’t really know what I was looking at, and I initially thought it was just like a brief skit that was made for the event I was watching. Fast forward past realizing it’s a full film and familiarizing myself even further with Boots’ artistry, I saw Sorry to Bother You at the AMC Southpoint 17 theater with my mom in 2018 when I was just 20 years old. I hope y’all appreciated the alliteration in the first part of that sentence by the way. I actually wrote about that film when I saw it back then on this very same platform, and I thought it was lost media until I found it a couple seconds ago. I republished it on Letterboxd, so you can find that here, although I will note that I was still recovering from my first bout of psychosis at the time, so my writing was ass. As I always say, my stuff didn’t become decent in my eyes until 2019.
Anyway, since seeing that film in theaters twice—once with my mom and once again with my high school best friend—I have listened to the first four albums from The Coup, as well as their soundtrack for the Sorry to Bother You film. By the time I’m finished listening to those last two albums in their discography, I might have to add Boots Riley to the list of my favorite rappers of all time. The films honestly make me appreciate the music even more, and vice versa. I don’t think he’s exactly the type of rapper that’ll blow purists away with hyper technical flows, rhyme patterns, and wordplay. For me it’s more about the actual content and the principles and beliefs that he espouses in his lyricism. That’s not to say that his rapping is anywhere near wack on a technical level. He says super dope shit in unbelievably creative ways. He’s always been an impeccable storyteller even before the films. My favorite song that I know by them is Piss on Your Grave, which is the penultimate track on the super classic Steal This Album project from 1998. That’s perhaps my favorite album from my birth year. It’s at least top 3. I also really love a song called Whathegirlmuthafuckinwannadoo from the aforementioned soundtrack, which dropped 20 years later. I remember checking out a song from their 2012 album before I heard any of their other stuff and thinking it was really amazing as well. I’m basically saying all this to say that you should get into The Coup’s music as soon as possible if you haven’t done so yet. I feel like these days people in my age range and younger only know about the movies, but I try to remind people that he’s also an amazing musician as often as I can.
Speaking of music, one of the first things that stood out to me the first time I saw the film was the score. It’s available to stream on DSPs, and I added it to my library as soon as I got home from the theater on the opening day. I don’t listen to a lot of movie scores—in fact, I think the only other original score I really spent time with was the one Jon Brion made for Synecdoche, New York—but this one is really good as well. I love The Stolen Design and Metrofunk, but my number one favorite track on the album is definitely Pinky Ring Dude. It’s the theme song for LaKeith Stanfield’s character, who is one of very few prominent male characters in the whole film. I didn’t really think about it until now, but if I had to choose a favorite character it would probably be him. Don’t take this the wrong way, but something about him felt oddly relatable to me. He’s a very potent representation of the performative male. It’s interesting though because his performative nature actually works for him. I get the impression that… Well, I can’t say what I wanna say without spoiling the ending, but the implication is that he usually has success and achieves the desired effect with said performance. I think the funniest moments in the film involve his character.
Not to be weird or anything, but there are a lot of very attractive people in this movie. I personally was not aware of how cute Taylour Paige was until seeing her in this. As soon as she appears on screen waking Cassandra up in the beginning after the dream sequence, I was like, “Woah…” I think this is legitimately the only time I’ve ever been attracted to someone with a mullet. It’s not “I’m attracted to her, and also she happens to have a mullet.” The mullet is actually part of why I find her so attractive in the film. Why am I talking about this?
Anyway, let me actually talk about some of the content within the movie itself finally. Very early on in the story, the film introduces this theme of feeling isolated and having this desire for human connection. The main character, played by Keke Palmer, eventually does achieve this, but not in a romantic sense. In fact, she is offered romance throughout the entire film, but it serves as more of a distraction than anything, and she never really gives in to it. The connection is reached through community working together based on a mutual, material need. Ok that last sentence was a joke referencing a platitude from one of the characters. It actually is kinda true though. Technically, that is what happens. Am I saying too much? I guess I did spoil it in the sense that anyone reading this now knows that Cassandra does not take an L at the end of the movie. The intangible sense of community alignment and cooperation portrayed in this film, particularly in the final third, is actually very beautiful. I’m gonna keep this kinda vague to avoid spoilers, but the part where Cassandra says “thank you” legitimately made me tear up the first time I watched it. When I exited the theater on May 22nd, I said it was the best movie I had ever seen in my life with the acknowledgement that I was fully giving in to recency bias and hype with no shame. I think I love it even more after seeing it a second time though.
As I’ve mentioned already, my first time seeing this film was on May 22nd at the Carolina Theatre in Durham. Sidenote: if you live in Durham, the Carolina Theatre should be your default cinema; it’s significantly cheaper than AMC, and it frankly just has superior vibes. The only issue is parking can be tough, but that shouldn’t be a dealbreaker. Get ya homie to drop you off. Anyway, the first time I saw it, there were maybe like 7 other people in the theater, excluding my sister who saw it with me. Last night when I saw it for the second time with my mom, the whole theater was packed. I usually prefer a more empty theater because I hate people, but this is definitely the type of movie that’s elevated by the crowd’s reaction. I was very quiet since I had already seen it, but it was very obvious that every single person in that room was having a blast. The laughter was practically incessant. Some people even applauded certain scenes. It made me wonder if Boots himself has witnessed firsthand people’s initial reactions to the full movie. I’m sure he probably has, and seeing something like that has to feel incredible to an artist.
On the drive back after my first time seeing it, my sister asked me how much of an effect I think the messaging will have. She specifically asked if I think it will lead people to be more interested in dialectical materialism. I told her that I don’t think people are gonna see the movie and then immediately start reading theory as soon as they get home. That’s not really how anything works though. I think the film will and is doing a commendable job of putting the philosophy of dialectical materialism in the spotlight. What people do with the information that the film presents is really out of the filmmakers’ hands to an extent. It’s integral to the plot, so I believe that most people who really love the film will probably at the very least go home and watch a video essay about the concept. You gotta give people time to grow after you plant the seed. By the time Boots Riley’s next film is in theaters, I imagine a lot of the audience will be more aware of dialectical materialism than they were when they first saw this one.
Again, last night I saw it with my mom. If you’ve seen the movie, you may be concerned about how it felt to sit next to my mother while we both watched the scene with, uh… I’ll call it the scene with the splashes. I too was concerned about the potential discomfort ahead of time, but to my relief I’m pretty sure she just found it hilarious. She was laughing really hard.
One more thing I wanna make sure I mention is that the antagonist, played by Demi Moore, was really great. Her name is Christie Smith, and she’s basically like if Anthony Fantano was Jeff Bezos. Boots is really amazing at creating evil rich white characters. It’s very cartoonish, but also terrifyingly believable. Some of those characters literally just feel like people I went to high school with. I just had to make sure I mentioned that because it’s something I find really amusing about his work.
Like I said, I’m picking this as the best movie I’ve ever seen in my life. I will admit that it ironically doesn’t hit me on a super personal level. I’d say the majority of my favorite pieces of art resonate with me deeply because I feel like they are applicable to my personal experience. Films like Moonlight & Synecdoche, New York make me reflect and ponder my life story. If I’m being real, I Love Boosters doesn’t do that at all. That’s arguably even more impressive though. It got to where it is in my list of favorite things solely by being smart, fun, pretty, cute, whimsical, charming, and technically sharp. They had all their shit together for this one. If you are in the United States or Canada and you haven’t seen I Love Boosters yet, I need you to go to your preferred search engine and type in “I Love Boosters showtimes.” Bookmark this page, see the movie in theaters, and then come back here to tell me what you think in the comment section. I personally think it’s a masterpiece. ✌🏽
#BootsRiley #DemiMoore #DonCheadle #EizaGonzález #KekePalmer #LakeithStanfield #NaomiAckie #PoppyLiu #TaylourPaige #TheCoup #TuneYards #WillPoulter
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