‘I Love Boosters’: Boots Riley Takes Aim at Capitalist Fashion With Surreal Political Satire

Alci Rengifo

Boots Riley wants to keep alive a certain form of radical filmmaking with his first film in eight years, “I Love Boosters.” The rapper-turned-director is clearly in no rush to simply chase after standard Hollywood success. He genuinely has things to say at a time when the world may be convulsive, yet popular cinema as a political tool has become quite timid. There is nothing timid about this surreal romp, which is a visually inventive satire powered by an upfront leftist spirit. The seed for the story apparently began with a track also titled “I Love Boosters” in the 2006 album “Pick A Bigger Weapon” by Riley’s band, The Coup. Like the group’s music, this is a film with the feeling of radical politics joined with joyful, free-wheeling art. The fashion industry becomes a personification of all that is irrational and unjust about the current socio-economic order.

The first “booster” we meet is San Francisco Bay Area resident Corvette (Keke Palmer) who is sharp but part of the eternal American underclass, to the point of squatting in a closed chicken restaurant. The place doubles as her base of operations for robbing designer clothes from targeted stores and then re-selling them at lower prices, a move we see her hilariously pull off with a potential night club hook up. This sort of operation can’t be done alone and Corvette works with a crew, dubbed the “Velvet Gang,” that includes Sade (Naomi Ackie) and Mariah (Taylour Paige). Corvette has a talent for fashion design but breaking in is no easy feat for someone in her social station. A classic case of having one of her ideas ripped off makes Corvette to direct the crew primarily at Metro Designer, a brand owned by high-end designer Christie Smith (Demi Moore). The Velvet Gang is then rattled when another thief beats them to the punch, robbing multiple Metro stores at a rapid pace. They catch up with the mystery bandit, Jianhu (Poppy Liu), who has her own reasons for targeting Smith’s empire with a device that operates per the rules of dialectical materialism.

This is Riley’s first film since his 2018 debut “Sorry to Bother You,” a brilliant satire about the modern worker trapped in late-stage capitalism. Obviously the situation has not become any better since then, though Riley’s script is not a critique of the Trump era per se. He wants to make visually wild proletarian art speaking genuinely for the social underdog. When Sade and Mariah get jobs at a Metro Designer store, their manager is Grayson (Will Poulter), a farcically arrogant ego who only gives them thirty second lunch breaks. Jianhu is targeting Metro because of her time at a sweatshop that makes the brand’s clothing, where the workers are brutally repressed when they try to organize. Riley then captures the frustrations of his heroes with wonderfully surreal flourishes, like a giant boulder of unpaid bills Corvette sees rolling down the streets of Oakland coming for her. 

Boots Riley’s work then poses the question of what does “revolution” or “resistance” even look like in 2026? One of the ironies of Corvette’s plight is that she is entrapped by a system where Christie Smith may be the enemy, but Corvette has to also operate like a capitalist to survive, hustling her stolen merchandise at night clubs and other spots. No one necessarily has revolutionary dreams spawned from thinkers or icons. When Jianhu recounts her sweatshop memories, Riley switches to a film reel that winks at radical French director Jean-Luc Godard. In Godard films like “La Chinoise,” the young rebels worship Che Guevara, Lenin and Mao. One of The Coup’s albums, “Steal This Album,” is titled as a nod to ‘60s radical Abbie Hoffman’s guide “Steal This Book,” which offered advice on how to live by defying the system. In our current post-modern, post-Cold War reality, where the entire planet is basically capitalist, all we can do is survive. Riley seems to critique how people in their despair turn to New Age thinking with Dr. Jack (a hilariously unrecognizable Don Cheadle), who runs a pyramid scheme called Friends Being Friendly. The other women see through the sham but it gives Sade seems to find purpose in believing what Dr. Jack is selling. 

Unlike “Sorry to Bother You,” the message tends to work stronger than the narrative this time around. Riley’s is more entranced by getting certain ideas across than smoothing out the plot. The main weapon the Velvet Gang employs against Metro is a device Jianhu came across that absorbs items from one place to another, like a portal you can carry around. Violeta (Eiza González), a late-comer to the group, realizes the device also works by Karl Marx’s theory of dialectical materialism, meaning that change occurs through the conflict of opposing forces, whether it be social revolution or two people procreating. The gag sets the stage for some wacky uses of the device where Riley indulges in visually wild antics where even stop motion is employed for some capitalist tools who literally shed their skin. Other story details proceed to get lost in the swirl, such as a mysterious male model played by LaKeith Stanfield (so good in “Sorry to Bother You) who catches Corvette’s eye but might be some sort of soul-sucking demon. 

As socially radical art “I Love Boosters” still delivers as an exhilarating manifesto made by a genuinely original director. Demi Moore is given apt screen time with another rowdy performance, having fun as the cutthroat designer who lives in a stylish, yet literally slanted office. Cinematographer Natasha Braier’s images are always alive with rich color. The score by Oakland music project Tune-Yards backs the visuals with a kinetic pace. Like his previous film, Riley’s latest may last because it does not parade like a pamphlet offering definite answers. The old revolutions may have failed, but we still have the same problems. If the system insists on remaining cruel and unequal, people will cheerfully become outlaws. When the Velvet Gang have a big showdown with Christie at a fashion show, the soundtrack kicks into the MC5’s “Kick Out the Jams,” one of the great pre-punk numbers by a band that merged rock and political radicalism. Riley figures art is one of the best ways to keep somehow resisting. 

“I Love Boosters” releases May 22 in theaters nationwide.