SORRY TO BOTHER YOU
(15)
★★★★★
CHICAGO-BORN rapper Boots Riley makes his feature film directorial debut with an audacious, wildly inventive and frequently uproarious satire about workplace culture, black exploitation and rampant capitalism.
The unlikely hero is Cassius Green (Lakeith Stanfield), known to friends as Cash.
He lives in the garage of his uncle Sergio (Terry Crews) with activist girlfriend Detroit (Tessa Thompson).
Four months behind on the rent, Cash must find alternative accommodation unless he can raise the balance within two weeks.
He hopes a job as a telemarketer at RegalView alongside friend Salvador (Jermaine Fowler) will answer his prayers.
Cash’s manager instructs him to follow the script and maybe – just maybe – he will be promoted to a Power Caller desk on the top floor.
His tentative first efforts to engage customers are dispiriting failures until an experienced co-worker (Danny Glover) imparts sage words.
“You want to make some money here, read the script with your white voice,” he whispers.
Sure enough, when Cash (now voiced by David Cross) erases all traces of Oakland from his patter, he secures his first sale... then another.
In record time, he is courting the attention of Mr X (Omari Hardwick), who manages the Power Caller team, and Steve Lift (Armie Hammer), CEO of futuristic employer WorryFree.