Oakland filmmaker Boots Riley considers his brainy and unorthodox \u201cI Love Boosters\u201d to be his best movie yet.<\/p>\n
And after seeing it, it\u2019s hard to disagree. His surreal R-rated Oakland-set heist dramedy (filmed partially in the East Bay but mostly in Atlanta) is not only worthy of repeat viewings but takes a hugely satisfying, stand-up-and-cheer swipe at out-of-control capitalism \u2014 a common theme in Riley\u2019s three film\/streaming projects.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoosters\u201d centers on a squad of upstart shoplifters dubbed the Velvet Mafia (played by Keke Palmer, Taylour Paige and Naomi Ackie, and later, Poppy Liu and Eiza Gonz\u00e1lez), who are intent on making life miserable for an ethically deficient Bay Area fashion maven (played by Demi Moore) by swiping her often monochromatic designer duds and selling them at an affordable price.<\/p>\n
It opens in theaters May 22.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m trying to make an amusement park ride,\u201d Riley says of his absurdist follow-up to 2018\u2019s \u201cSorry to Bother You.\u201d \u201cAnd that\u2019s what cinema needs right now. I think we need stuff that makes people engage.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBoosters\u201d does that while giving the brain a hard-core workout. Given the enthusiastic reactions at advance screenings \u2014 including two sold-out Centerpiece shows that were part of this year\u2019s San Francisco International Film Festival \u2014 Riley\u2019s assessment might be in tune with audiences\u2019. It could result in his biggest hit yet.<\/p>\n
In addition to being outrageous and funny, \u201cBoosters\u201d addresses hot-button issues such as excessively high Bay Area rents; deplorable working conditions; the shallow, callous fashion industry; and even loneliness. It also includes a discussion on dialectical materialism \u2014 a complex philosophy developed by Karl Marx and others. In other words, there\u2019s a lot to chew on while marveling at its color scheme, stop-motion animation and set design. And it\u2019s hard not to cheer on its female-fronted cast of characters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I can feel it is making me want to cheer and cry and all that after all these times (of watching it), I know it\u2019s working at a high level,\u201d Riley said during a whirlwind one-day San Francisco press tour. \u201cBoosters\u201d co-stars Liu (\u201cHacks\u201d), Gonz\u00e1lez (\u201cBaby Driver\u201d) and Oscar-nominee LaKeith Stanfield, a frequent collaborator of Riley\u2019s, joined him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s also doing things that I have objectively not seen done before in a film,\u201d Riley added. \u201cIt\u2019s pushing things. It has a different pacing, a different rhythm to it and I can tell when I\u2019ve done something that feels new to people. I haven\u2019t seen a film do something that ends up where the win is something that\u2019s as radical as what\u2019s happening now.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Riley\u2019s reasoning on why he thinks \u201cBoosters\u201d is his best film yet sounds as if he\u2019s referencing music, there\u2019s a good reason for that. He\u2019s the primary vocalist, songwriter and producer of the influential Oakland hip-hop group The Coup (one of whose songs, \u201cI Love Boosters!,\u201d is said to be the inspiration for the film).<\/p>\n
He sees filmmaking as similar to music-making, a collaborative process that taps and elevates individual strengths. As he did with his previous projects, Riley incorporates Bay Area talent for \u201cBoosters!\u201d The music was created by the Oakland-based duo of Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner \u2014 aka Tune-Yards \u2014 who also worked on Riley\u2019s previous film, \u201cSorry to Bother You.\u201d And the set construction coordinator was Ben Nichols of Oakland.<\/p>\n
The 55-year-old Riley made a splash with his Oakland-set \u201cSorry to Bother You,\u201d a unique filmmaking experience starring Stanfield as a shooting star of a telemarketer who uses his \u201cwhite voice\u201d to generate sales, and which included the startling images of horse people. He also created the Amazon Prime Oakland-set series \u201cI\u2019m a Virgo,\u201d about a 13-foot Oakland teen figuring out his place in the world.<\/p>\n
Riley\u2019s whirlwind of ideas ping-pong unpredictability in \u201cI Love Boosters.\u201d And it\u2019s his daring outside-of-the-box creativity that makes his cast of actors adore him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn all of Boots\u2019 films, you never know which turn you\u2019re taking, where it\u2019s going to take you,\u201d said Stanfield \u2014 who plays a sensual, flirtatious presence named Pinky Ring Guy whose seductive, imploring eyes entice Corvette (Palmer).<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think he\u2019s one of those filmmakers that is willing to push boundaries and do different things, and he also has a soul, so he cares,\u201d Stanfield adds. \u201cIt\u2019s not merely about entertainment, although entertainment is valuable. It\u2019s also, hopefully, about inspiring questions, conversations and reflection.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the film\u2019s biggest reflections involves a heady discourse on dialectical materialism, a complicated philosophical principle based on how opposing forces and contradictions fuel change.<\/p>\n
Or at least that\u2019s partly what \u201cBoosters\u201d is about.<\/p>\n
The actor breaking down that concept in digestible terms is Gonz\u00e1lez, a rising star who plays store clerk Violeta. She is no stranger to complex, intellectually challenging subject matters, having starred in Netflix\u2019s mind-bending sci-fi series \u201c3 Body Problem.\u201d She appreciates the challenges that Riley\u2019s film presents.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to really know what you\u2019re talking about to just memorize it because there\u2019s a lot of big words and concepts,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd so truly the only way to be able to memorize a dialogue like that is understanding what you\u2019re saying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liu admits it took her a few times to grasp the entire essence of dialectical materialism\u2019s meaning. But she was, from the start, deeply moved when she read the story arc of her character Jianhu \u2014 a garment industry worker in China fed up with impossible working conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last 10 minutes of the movie really hits hard for me,\u201d Liu said, adding the film couldn\u2019t be more of the moment. That is part of the beauty of Riley\u2019s films, she adds.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s nice to work with someone that listens ultimately and is bringing an original story with original ideas. He\u2019s pushing the boundaries of filmmaking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Riley says he purposely likes catching his audiences off guard.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to give people something that keeps them on their toes, that keeps them a little wobbly,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s like life. I wanted to have some connection to that. It\u2019s weird for me to say that, because obviously there\u2019s all sorts of unrealistic things (in the film) where it\u2019s in your face and not real. But the journey makes you feel it\u2019s real.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Stanfield \u2014 an accomplished actor and remarkable musician who was honored with a Star of the Year Award at this year\u2019s CinemaCon in Las Vegas \u2014 being a part of \u201cI Love Boosters\u201d fits in with the artistic choices he\u2019s making as a father of three. (His wife, Kasmere Trice Stanfield, appears in \u201cBoosters\u201d for one of its most shocking moments.)<\/p>\n
\u201cI make a concerted effort to consider what kind of world they\u2019re gonna have to grow up in and what we\u2019re leaving behind,\u201d said Stanfield, who was nominated for an Oscar for \u201cJudas and the Black Messiah.\u201d Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, storytelling in this format is very powerful and it can affect a lot of people, especially impressionable minds. So you\u2019ve got to be aware of what we\u2019re putting out there. Yeah, we\u2019re trying to entertain but also maybe we can edify, and that\u2019s if we\u2019re able to do both. Then I feel like we\u2019ve hit the sweet spot that I want to reside in now.<\/p>\n
Riley says he hopes in the future his socially minded works actually lose their immediacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI aim to make art that gets made irrelevant,\u201d he said. \u201cAt some point in the future somebody will be like, \u2018Why? Why was he caring about this?\u2019 And they\u2019ll have to look at history and see why.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oakland filmmaker Boots Riley considers his brainy and unorthodox \u201cI Love Boosters\u201d to be his best movie yet.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,2777,8194,1636,3607,242,1637,6454,69,65944],"class_list":["post-299218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-entertainment","tag-features","tag-film","tag-latest-headlines","tag-lifestyle","tag-movies","tag-pm-report","tag-things-to-do","tag-tv-streaming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}