I Love Boosters Review

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:00:00]I love boosters. Boots Riley directs the hell out of this adult Looney Tunes corporate capitalism commentary and it's just as bonkers as it sounds. Now, to a degree, his symbolism isn't necessarily subtle and it's rapid-fire. If you've seen his previous film, Sorry to Bother You, it's very similar in that regard.

[00:00:17]That movie does start out with a pretty broad-spectrum social commentary that works really well and slowly it becomes more and more unhinged and absurdist as the film goes on. Whereas in this, it is kind of just absurd the entire time.

[00:00:31]This works for better and for worse at times. The last act of this does go on a bit too long and a specific device becomes a MacGuffin, but the practical effects and general interweaving of thematic ideas works great. Similarly, there's an amazing sonic identity to this film. The music is fantastic. Boots Riley has that history of making music and very dynamic sounds, too. This is somewhat based off of one of his songs, which he kind of talked about in the Q&A afterwards. But yeah, that sonic identity matches the personality of everything happening here. You will see a few jaw-dropper scenes. One of them involves Lakeith Stanfield and a practical vignette that you will never forget. Boots Riley's use of color and fashion are equally fantastic and lend their use to the ideal of consumerism and this idea of wanting more and more and never having enough. So, you have these kind of ideas like kleptomania, corporate capitalism, the overt human idea of being involved in it all and eventually being over it all, as well.

[00:01:27]There are some big swings in scenes in this movie. And though I feel like we get a little bit less development of characters in this, we always know their motive and it's through a film with big personality and vision. I did really enjoy watching this. It is definitely one that you want to see with a big crowd and I was lucky to have that with the Siff opening showing. I gave this a seven out of 10. I really enjoyed this.

[00:01:51]I wanted to bump it up a little bit more. Kind It didn't have that cohesive pacing that I feel Sorry to Bother You has. This still has a lot to say though, and I love a film like that, and it is absolutely ridiculous. There are just some scenes in the There are some shots and scenes in this that are hilarious, and let's talk about them a little bit.

[00:02:09]We're going to go into spoilers. So, yeah, let's talk about that Lakeith Stanfield scene. He is one of the weird outliers of this film because he is actually a demon. He outright tells the audience that he's a demon, and he has this very interesting aura whenever he comes on screen where the audio drops a little bit. It's way more intimate. It's a close-up, extreme close-up shot of his face, and he's monologuing, and there's like a reverberation in the scene um because he's kind of like hypnotic in how he talks. He's this demon that eventually he does everything that he can to try to like hook up with a woman, and what he does is there's a scene where he is going down on a woman, and eventually like just sucking their soul out from that uh intimate experience, if you will. It's a shot that shows an entire scene. It shows an entire room.

[00:02:57]He is a huge monster. It's like production value from The Thing type of a creature as he is um sucking the soul out of these women, and it is incredibly explicit, but I've never seen anything like that on a screen, and I have that image vividly in my head, and I know all of you will have it as well when you come and see this film whenever it releases. One of the biggest aspects of this film hinges on a McGuffin, like I was saying earlier. It is a three-in-one device. It initially is shown as a teleporter. It kind of looks like a toilet seat, but three different modes, like a high production one. And so, the three modes are teleport, the other one is accelerate, and the last one is deconstruct. This gets into ridiculous amounts of commentary. The corporations want to teleport the clothes so they don't have to pay for shipping. That is hilarious.

[00:03:45]That might be one of the funniest jokes in the whole movie. Otherwise, the acceleration it kind kind like speeds up events. This comes to work really well in the end of the movie where we are at like a big fashion show for Demi Moore's character and the acceleration kind of it it finds the crowd that's in that that are kind of like little restless and the acceleration turns them into a full on protest, which is kind of interesting because this is very much a movie that is talking about that corporate capitalism, but it's also talking about the people that work in the factories. Those factories need to unionize. I mean, even in his post film Q&A, Boots Riley was really funny in that he said he was a communist, but then he was also saying that you know, really go out and see this movie. Kind of a funny capitalist message, but I understand. He's making art and he wants it to be seen. He wants it to continue to grow and there's not really anything else like this. It's all practical in many different senses and sometimes even near the end, you are seeing cop cars, you are seeing like big what would be big city vignettes done on that model scale and I really appreciate that. It adds a little bit of extra character to this film and I like the factory dynamic. The deconstruction setting on the teleporter on the like three in one device is just bizarre. There is one moment where they point it at one of the main cast and it deconstructs her to her parents like conceiving her, like making love and actually conceiving her. It like takes her out of the scene completely and you see a lot of very lewd moments in this film. So that's why I'm telling you go see it with a crowd.

[00:05:19]You're going to have some jaw-dropping type stuff and it is always entertaining. Now, we don't really get good character work or we don't get character work that was convincing me so much that Sorry to Bother You did because in Sorry to Bother You, you have this like transformation of a character.

[00:05:34]The idea of LaKeith Stanfield's character going from having his own culture and kind of being assimilated into this high rich white corporate culture and Boots Riley talked after the film about how he loves to speak in contradictions. So, I think that that kind of works really well. And in this, you have like the kleptomaniac, you have the consumerism, and eventually Kiki Kiki Palmer's character is kind of over it by the end. Even the soul-sucking demon, if you will. She's just over that. You know, it's interesting as an idea and as a concept, but it's not one when she roots herself in reality, she sees that the world really needs like some just change. That with all of her consumerism, they're really not reselling any of the clothes. It's just the want and the need for more. I do wish some of these characters had a little bit extra definition. It's just kind of like absurd the entire film, and while I like that, while it works, some moments are better than others. And there is a With film, you can be subtle in conveying a message or a reality. And this is very on the nose. It works well in that regard because you are being shown everything, but sometimes I feel like we're told a little bit too much.

[00:06:41]And that's just kind of where I end up with this film. I really admire it for existing because there is some tremendous effort into this. The fashion in this is absolutely incredible. This should win best wardrobe at the end of the year. I can't really think of too many other films that could compete with it because it is so inherently about fashion. This The practical effects in this are amazing, and there are several several different moments. Um there are different dresses they try on with the three-in-one accelerator, deconstructor, and teleport thing. They show different styles of clothing and how ridiculous it all can get and how it is when it's distilled down to just little threads, poofs of cotton. It is a very bizarre film, but it absolutely has its place within a commentary. It's a really interesting double-A type film. This is a good mid-budget, and I would recommend go see this in a theater. Like try to hit this up opening weekend. I'm truly not trying to shill it. I'm just saying this reminds me of something like The Substance. It's not really to that degree because The Substance I think is much more cohesive in what it's trying to say, where this has a lot of really good ideas, but the connective thread might not be the best comparatively to something like The Substance or even Sorry to Bother You. But, that's kind of what I think about this. I still really enjoyed it. I am probably going to go try to see it one more time with a bigger group when it comes out because it is worth that experience. Any who, thank you for tuning in. I'm so excited.

[00:08:01]This is such a fun way to to start out SIF with. I think you should absolutely check it out. There will not be anything else like this coming out this summer. I can guarantee you that. Any who, please tune in throughout the weekend. I will have a few videos coming out. I'm going to try to do a SIF video all on one, but I will have separate stand-alone reviews for Mortal Kombat 2, for Obsession, both of which I'm watching today. But, thank you again for tuning in. This is a really fun one. Um I hope you're doing well wherever you are in life, and we'll talk again soon. Thanks. Bye.