This movie didn’t win an Oscar. In fact, it wasn’t even nominated. A nomination would have required a “For Your Consideration” campaign from the filmmakers, which just goes to show you how subjective the Oscars are.
In his own words, writer and director Boots Riley describes Sorry to Bother You as “an absurdist dark comedy with magical realism and science fiction inspired by the world of telemarketing.” Riley drew from his own experience as a telemarketer and activist in Oakland to make this film.
I don’t know if I have a lot to say about this movie. It is pretty self-explanatory.
It’s obviously the story of Cassius Green, starting from the bottom and then finally “making it.” We follow his narrative to its logical conclusion: Cassius discovers that the cost to get to where he wanted to go wasn’t worth the price he paid to get there.
After landing a job at a telemarketing company, he by and by achieves his financial goals. And for a while, the money does satisfy him. But he quickly discovers that the values that brought him to the golden elevator of the power caller no longer aligns with those of his union-organizing friends.
Tech
The satire begins to take shape in the cinematography of the film. Doug Emmett is the cinematographer who executes Riley’s vision. Every scene is painted with such bold, saturated colors over the instability and hopelessness of poverty. —Cassius (“Cash”) asks for 40 on 2 at the gas station and then hands the attendant 40 cents…lol.— As the story progresses and Cash becomes more embroiled in the world of the power caller, his own world gets stripped of color. His yellow-washed, poster-lined garage apartment is replaced by one of ultrachic, modern, stark-white Scandinavian design.
And can we just take a second to recognize the outstanding costume design by Deirdra Govan? These highly stylized, eccentric costumes help create the exaggerated caricatures on display in the film. They’re like something out of a comic book. It’s not just a 3-piece paisley suit. It’s also a bowler hat and an eye patch. Govan makes it look effortless, but it really is an art form. Because honestly, did you notice that Danny Glover’s character wears a horse bolo tie??
Cash is Green
The tone of the film is important but it derives its brilliance from subject. Because it’s not just a story about a man named Cash on a quest to make money. It’s also very clearly a satire about the current state of capitalism and the dichotomous socioeconomic structure it creates. Again, depicting the story with bright flashy surrealism draws attention to the contrast between the two worlds. Capitalism separated the upstairs from the downstairs. Cash’s ability to make money is what brought him the attention of Mr.____ and Steve Lift. But Cash’s success did not bolster his comrades. Because in a capitalist society, the success of one does not equate to the success of the many, despite what Trickle-down economists would have you believe.
And yes, this film is about race insofar as capitalism is an inherently racist system. It is a system that benefits from a slave trade and, by extension, from encouraging companies to give as little to their employees as possible while demanding as much as possible in return.
3 Hots and a Cot
When the denizens of this film discover that the cost of simply living has exceeded what they earn from their low-wage jobs, they turn to “WorryFree,” a corporation that offers free meals and housing for lifetime labor contracts. In other words, employees would work in WorryFree factory for no wages, but would be provided room and board in the factory. But don’t fret, this isn’t slave labor, according to WorryFree CEO, Steve Lift. And if there is anyone we can trust, it’s a corporate CEO.
For those of you who didn’t catch that, that was satire. Satire is a literary device that uses irony to expose and ridicule a topic or ideology. What Riley is satirizing here is capitalism’s solution to the conundrum of increasing productivity while limiting costs: the prison-industrial complex. Slavery by proxy.
“But Ms. Now,” I hear you saying, “such a thing couldn’t happen today. The 13th amendment forbids it.”
And you’re absolutely right…except for this Animal Farm bull shit:
“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” …..The 13th Amendment, everybody.
Mr. Jones strikes up a conversation
We created space for this. We paved a road for this. To say that prison labor is anything but slavery is factually incorrect according to the United States Constitution. This is not exaggeration or satire, and it sure as hell ain’t funny. We are teetering on the brink of a society that is WorryFree and as if it couldn’t get any more abhorrent, the Sheriff of Sacramento literally said the following:
“The truth is if (the state) kept more people in prison and weren’t so concerned about releasing all of their inmates, which their population is now at historic lows, they would have plenty of people for fire crews. Now, they want to spend hundreds of millions of dollars for new fire crews… So, we will be replacing nearly free labor with expensive firefighters, which will offset the savings we were promised from these programs in the first place.” …..Sheriff Scott Jones, everybody.
So maybe this movie isn’t so absurd.