Review: Boots Riley’s Agenda Still Goes Down Smooth In ‘I Love Boosters’

The auteur theory is so ingrained in cinema that we almost take it for granted that a director should have a style. Still, some directors have a style so particular, so apparent, that their work becomes a genre unto itself. Think Hitchcock, think Wes Anderson, think of all the times you’ve heard something described as “Lynchian” even when David Lynch was uninvolved. And with just three projects under his belt - two films, one streaming series - Boots Riley has cemented himself as just such a figure.

I Love Boosters is a natural continuation of Riley’s artistic experiment, one that began with his hip hop outfit The Coup and evolved into visual media with Sorry To Bother You (2018) and Prime Video’s I’m A Virgo (2023). The experiment? Using entertainment to convince people that activism is the only way to change our exploitative capitalist society. He isn’t content to simply catalog the specifics of the class warfare we’re already engaged in, whether we know it or not. He wants to radicalize us, and so he tells stories about characters becoming radicalized themselves. At this point, it’s no spoiler to say that activism is the backbone of every third-act climax he has ever written. But just because he keeps banging the same drum doesn’t mean it isn’t a big, important, necessary drum - and the rhythm he strikes is infectious and full of flourishes. As Riley told Vulture in a recent interview, “No matter how didactic they say my stuff is, let them accuse it of not being fun.”

And that’s the thing: it is fun! I Love Boosters is a candy-colored riot through an Oakland steeped in magical realism. From unexpected cameos to stop-motion animation elements, from sci-fi to supernatural, and with a pulsing soundtrack from Riley’s frequent collaborators Tune-Yards, the whole thing is a memorable and unexpected ride - and none of it is there to mask the message. Riley doesn’t sweeten his medicine to make it go down easy, or smuggle it in beneath spectacle. His style isn’t subversive because he has nothing to hide. Instead, his style is unhinged excess, as outlandish elements and densely-layered comedic absurdity come crashing together in ways that heighten his argument rather than hiding it.

To wit: in I Love Boosters, Keke Palmer plays Corvette, the ringleader of a shoplifting outfit called The Velvet Gang. They boost from monochrome fast-fashion outlets designed by Christie Smith (Demi Moore), who, in turn, has stolen some of Corvette’s own fashion designs and is marketing them under her name. But just as the Gang is about to wipe out the inventory of a particular shop, they discover an unknown booster has beaten them to it. Her name is Jianhu (Poppy Liu), and she was able to swipe every article of clothing thanks to a mysterious tote bag that just… sucked the clothes in.

When the Gang corners Jianhu to find out how she did it, they discover that she’s an escaped worker from one of Christie Smith’s clothing manufacturing plants in China. She teleported to San Francisco thanks to the same device in her bag that’s been sending all the clothes she steals back to the factory - a device invented to save Smith’s company on shipping costs. While Corvette and her friends have been boosting to make a living and maybe get a little revenge on Smith as a treat, Jianhu is there to force Smith to make the working conditions in the factory tolerable.

Now, did we really need a hand-held teleporter in order to connect the story of shoplifting on the fringes of the fashion industry to the larger issue of worker exploitation in China? Of course not… but it sure makes things a whole lot more entertaining, especially when the gadget turns out to have settings for “situational accelerator” and “deconstruction” as well. Did we need LaKeith Stanfield playing some sort of catalog model-slash-incubus just to highlight that Corvette doesn’t need to settle for a monster to ease her loneliness, because activism connected her to her whole community? No, but like, I’m not complaining!

There’s a whole subplot about Smith designing $100,000 suits that turn out to be… hilariously graphic in ways I won’t spoil, but tie into the idea that think tanks employ actors to pose as average community members to espouse their propaganda in the news. In the same vein, Riley makes multi-million dollar movies full of sight gags, body horror, hand-made miniatures, and some of the best cast ensembles in the biz. In addition to Palmer, Moore, Liu, and Stanfield, I Love Boosters is stacked with Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, Eiza González, Will Poulter, and Don Cheadle, with surprise appearances from Jason Ritter, Eric André, and even the voice of Viggo Mortensen. What sets Riley’s work apart isn’t that it’s political, because all art is political. What sets it apart is that it, too, is propaganda, and unapologetically so. It has a vision of what the world is, what it could be, and what it takes to make that a reality. It’s just that his $100,000 suit is empowering rather than deceitful.

But mostly it’s still just a really good time at the movies, maybe one of the best times you’ll have all year. I’ll keep dancing to that drumbeat as long as Riley finds someone willing to pay him to bang it. Eat your heart out, Baby Yoda!