Sorry to Bother You

Movie, 2018, R

Premise - A man struggling to make ends meet takes a job at a telemarketing company selling useless encyclopedias. Utilizing his "white voice," he starts to find a real skill for closing sales over the phone. He starts to work his way up the ranks to "power caller" where he can make some serious money. Though now, his conscious struggles as he finds out that what they're selling may be entirely immoral.

Review - I.... I struggled a lot writing a premise for this because the plot develops so, so much. What plot points do I reveal, and which do I keep subtle? This is a film that, seriously, I could take a million guesses for how the film ends and NO ONE would be even close. Whatever direction you think this movie takes, based on the premise, you're wrong. You're flat out wrong. That said, I can't really discuss this film without talking about the last half of the movie so I have to talk spoilers. (Hint - there are horses involved).

This is one of the most bizarre films I have ever seen. But it's not bizarre just for bizarre's sake - it's a powerful sociopolitical satire. Therefore, this is truly MY kind of film - creative, weird, boundary-pushing, and stupid at times, but all for a smart purpose. I think it kind of draws similar energy as a lot of other films or television shows I enjoy. I'd say this is kind of Fight Club meets Mr. Robot meets Office Space meets Get Out meets The Lego Movie meets Black Mirror meets Bojack Horseman but with its own twists. And those are all some of my favorites so this film naturally gels with me too. All this said, I was truly weirded out, and it takes a lot for me to get weirded out.

What I appreciate most is that it is thought-provoking - enough so that it stuck in my consciousness and led to some really weird dreams. It's thought-provoking on multiple levels as well. There's big picture thinking, about systemic racism and classism, and the intersection between anti-capitalism and anti-racism. It's a social justice film. There's also all the little things - everything that is either seen or heard is available to unpack. Our main character's name is Cassius Green, pronounced "Cash is Green" or simply just "Cash Green." That immediately puts money thematically at the forefront. All the names are meaningful, such as Mr. _____ whose name is always bleeped out, or Detroit, or Steve Lift (who is always on top). When you're literally bleeping out someone's name, you're not being subtle about the messages you're trying to evoke. This film is about as overtly stylistic as you can get, but that's what I liked.

The film takes place in an alternate reality of Oakland, California that is on the verge of dystopia. To distract themselves from how horribly unfair the world is, people consume primal entertainment. The most popular TV show is a game show called "I GOT THE SHIT KICKED OUT OF ME!" where contestants get hit over and over. It reminds me of a darker version of The Lego Movie's "Honey, where are my pants??" which just keeps people occupied with meaningless humor. The biggest company in the world at the moment is called "WorryFree" - which gives its workers lifetime employment as well as lifetime lodging and food. It's a tempting offer for those who are struggling to get by, knowing you'd never have to financially struggle for the rest of your life. But the price is just that - a LIFETIME irreversible contract. It's revolutionizing the workforce, making companies more efficient by having all these employees who don't need wages. Essentially, this is a modern form of slavery that disproportionately affects poor people of color. WorryFree employees don't get paid, they just get to live peacefully in slave quarters with terrible food. Cassius, as a "power caller," sells slave labor over the phone to international companies. As a person of color himself, he gets called out in protests for betraying his people.

There's an incredibly diverse cast of people, namely people of color who work jobs such as telemarketing, or sign-spinning. Once you get upstairs to power-calling and WorryFree, then you get all the white characters. Much like real life. There are films I can easily think of that are anti-capitalist (i.e. Fight Club), that still sort of focus on the every-day corporate white man. There are also anti-racism films that tackle the immorality of slavery and discrimination. But this is the best example I can think of that intersects the two, because they are undeniably related.

So... the film ends with Cassius turning into a horse. There, I said that. WorryFree is turning its workers into "equisapiens" (horse-people) to improve its efficiency and create a literal second class of citizens who aren't afforded the same human rights. And the second you hear that, you would think everyone would be mortified right? Well, the political satire kicks in when WorryFree is exposed, and the company's stock goes UP, and politicians start backing Steve Lift in his endeavors. It's a happy-ending in the sense that Cassius has chosen his side, and is no longer morally conflicted, but... he's a horse.

It's a hilarious film. I laughed out loud several times, both at jokes that were clearly sociopolitically charged, and at ones that were just stupid. It's stupid, stupid humor sometimes, but it's effective.(94/100)

EDIT 4/11/21 - Rewatching this film now having studied social justice and policy in grad school has made me realize even more how fantastic this film is and I'm bumping the score up to a 95. In my original analysis of the film, I talked a lot about the intersection between race and class. What I did not explore as much is the intersection of race, class, and power/control, which is something I have been thinking a lot more about. I think Cassius has such a fascinating role in that his role as a person of color has much more to do with maintaining social hierarchies of power, rather than disrupting them. While the rest of his coworkers are out protesting over worker rights and trying to unionize, Cassius betrays them by becoming a "power caller" - basically one of the elites. But this role isn't to show that Black people, or poor people, can pull themselves out of oppression if they work hard enough. Cassius becoming a power caller gives the illusion of Black success that is, for the most part, an anomaly and does nothing to change structural racism or classism. But it's an illusion meant to appease the masses, shouting the message that you CAN pull yourself up by the bootstraps and make it in America.

Cassius's role at the end of the film as the leader of the equisapiens also makes me question the maintenance of social hierarchies. Now that Cassius is in that position, I wonder how possible it is for Steve Lift to manipulate Cassius under his control, getting exactly what he wanted to quell social rebellion. Calling him Martin Luther King Jr. of the equisapiens was no coincidence - MLK also had a reputation of quelling Black rebellion by playing into White fantasies of a peaceful union where social classes remain as they are.

Lastly, I thought it was incredibly symbolic that in creating the equisapiens, Lift actually created a species with profound power to rebel. The equisapiens have superhuman strength. It's incredibly presumptive to think that the equisapiens wouldn't use that extra power to fight against their own oppression. Makes it seem like Lift really underestimated the free will of the slaves he was making.

Quote - "Is that what you do, you go from place to place stirring up trouble?" "Trouble is already there, I just help folks fix it."

What to watch for - There are so many stylistic moments that it's hard to choose. What had me hooked even from the original trailer was seeing Cassius fall from the sky and enter the home of whoever he was calling, each time he made a telemarketing call.

If you liked this film, I'd recommend a lot of things, but I think the first comparison I made was to Mr. Robot!

Directed by Boots Riley
Distributed by Annapurna Pictures