And because I went to school to be a doctor, I spent years getting rid of my Southern accent. I figured no one who was facing a life or death situation wanted to ever receive their medical advice from some clown who sounded like Matthew McConaughey. "Alright, alright, alright! Now wut we gon do right here is…" Um…no thanks doc, I’ll be getting a second opinion. Well, I clearly never finished medical school and I now mainly work with clients over the phone. But because I spent so much time sounding like a professional asshole, all of my clients assume that I’m white. And it isn’t until they’ve finished throwing some low key shade at Black people in general and received a photo of me along with a recap of everything that we talked about, that they call me apologizing and asking where I’m from. My response is always the same, "I come from the beach…BOY!!!" That’s a Half Baked reference by the way. I’m sorry that I keep doing that but half of my readers have never seen or have even heard of these films before.
The point of all of this is that there is no way I’d be anywhere close to being effective or successful in my current gig if I hadn’t adopted the Colin Powell voice. Let’s face it, white people simply don’t trust the Chris Rock voice or name. I mean hell, if some Black dude named Rock called me trying to sell me anything, I’d tell him to meet me on MLK BLVD at midnight with an ounce of that greeny green green. That would give me the necessary time to get that twenty that Pookie owes me. I kid, I kid, I don’t smoke weed. But you get my point!
Well when I first saw the trailer for Sorry to Bother You, I thought that it was just going to be a biography of my life! I thought to myself, the world isn’t ready for this yet and no one is going to ever pay money to see it. It’s like the time they tried to turn Jessie from Saved by the Bell into a stripper; America wasn’t ready to see its sweetheart sliding up and down a pole (I was). The timing was just way off. But I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that this film was much deeper than that. This is a film that we can all relate to in some way, shape, or form because whether we like to admit it or not, most of us sell our souls one paycheck at a time just so we can continue to afford that HBO subscription and see how Game of Thrones is going end. Damn you Jon Snow, damn you to hell!
So to help point out our flaws to us, Boots Riley (writer/director) decided to take us into the world of Cassius Green, a young dreamer who is played by Get Out and Atlanta star Lakeith Stanfield. Cassius is a young Black male who lives in his uncle’s garage with his beautiful and artistic girlfriend, Detroit. He’s stuck in a rut and is worried that he’s living out a meaningless life. So he decides to get a job as a telemarketer at one of the world’s biggest companies which is run by the controversial and cocky Steve Lift (Armie Hammer). More on him in a second. Cassius initially struggles at his new gig because he goes into it attempting to be himself. And it isn’t until his colleague Langston (Danny Glover) notices his struggles and lets him in on a little secret that things start to turn around for him. Langston lets him know that he has to stop using his normal voice and that he has to adopt the more trustworthy "white" voice. At first Cassius is reluctant but once he caves in, he quickly becomes not only a rising star in the company but also the floor’s best salesman. And it isn’t long before he gets promoted to the legendary and almost mythical Top Sellers department. It’s here where he meets the aforementioned Steve Lift.
Lift is the innovator of a new workplace; one where you can work, live, eat, and sleep without ever leaving the building. On the surface it sounds great because it provides you 3 quality meals and what appears to be a good roof over your head; two things that are hard to come by for the average low income family in this society. But as you can imagine, it’s an absolute nightmare.
It’s viewed as modern day slavery and has led to a number of protests in the city, some of which is led by Cassius’s girlfriend Detroit, which of course leads to some tension between the two. Does Cassius risk losing his girlfriend and his close friends to live out the life he thinks he’s always wanted or will he realize what he’s gotten himself into?
Now so far this sounds intriguing but you can pretty much tell where it’s headed, right? Wrong! This is the trippiest movie I have seen since Scanner Darkly and that movie had animation in it. It seriously feels as though you’re on a high as the film continues to get weirder and weirder. And it’s not just the filming style or the quirky characters, it’s the story itself. By the time Cassius wanders off in Lift’s party, which had an Eyes Wide Shut orgy in it by the way, and discovers the film’s main secret, I thought I was having an acid flashback! Which is really weird because I’ve never done acid. And I honestly believe that this is how most of the audiences who saw this film and rated it felt because their ratings don’t quite match up to the quality of the film. I think it was just too out there for the standard viewer.
I however loved every second of it because it’s a fresh take on the comedy genre and there are so many not so subtle but also not preachy messages in it. One of the funniest and yet saddest moments in the film is when Cassius is forced to rap at Lift’s party and completely sells his soul to gain the approval of the crowd. The look of total defeat and shame on his face was something that I will never forget. Someone please make Kanye watch this film.
I could honestly 3,000 words on this movie but sadly no one would read it. Hell, you probably already stopped reading after my Half Baked joke. But just in case you didn’t, I will stop my review here and say that you should definitely check this film out as I give it a rating of TIGHT!
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