Sorry to Bother You: The Most Unique and Bizarre film in years

     Once in a while there’s a film that comes along that actually stays true to the cliché statement made by critics of, “This film is unlike anything you have ever seen”. Never did that statement accurately described a movie than Boots Reilly’s Sorry to Bother You. It is a film so bizarre, so stylize, so not like anything else playing in a theater at the moment that it is incredibly hard not to appreciate on some level.

    The film centers around a man named Cassius Green, someone who is down on their luck and wants to make sure they have a stable career to make his life better. He ends up getting a job through a call center and ends up becoming a massive success due to the many strange techniques he uses to get others to appreciate him. The film has a simple concept on the surface, but it ends up being higher concept than one would expect. It has a lot of odd more fictionalized elements than one could expect and it makes for an incredibly different experience in the first two thirds but it’s not without its incredibly smart commentary. The film does an excellent job making a statement on Working Class and how much they are taken advantage on, but rather than being incredibly preachy and just beating a dead horse, it actually doesn’t kill that horse and uses it to its advantage by creating a narrative that’s unpredictable. By the third act of this movie, it goes from being a smartly written comedy with a big style to it, to a film that just goes flat out surreal and odd. However, it makes for one of the most fascinating twists that everyone has to see to believe and what really stands this movie out, even if you know that the movie has an odd turn by the third act, it’s an odd turn that catches even the most psychic of movie goers off guard. It makes for one of the most of the most bizarre experiences that unlike anything you would ever see, but that’s why you might want for a movie, a new experience that gives you something unlike anything else and Sorry to Bother You succeeds at that big time.

     Outside of the story itself, what truly makes Sorry to Bother You such a unique experience is the fact that Boots Reilly created a film that is visually amazing. Boots Reilly has created film that is shot and edited amazingly with edits that are so smoothly and unique and shots that look so bright and colorful, that aesthetically speaking the film has so much style to it, it’s hard not to appreciate all the visual flare that appears on screen. Every single shot creates a grounded yet also out of this world take on reality that fits in with the film’s outlandish tone. It certainly has a lot of visual nods to both recent indie films to classic blockbusters and does it in a way that’s creates something entirely new and Boots Reilly excelled that perfectly.

     Along with the editing, cinematography and over-all directing making the film a joy to watch, the film also does an excellent job with characters and theme. The main character of Cassius Green is very likable, being a down on his luck but ambitious person that’s willing to take some risks but also trying to make it so he has a comfortable living situation. Lakeith Stanfield makes it so this character is brought to life very well and he definitely has a variety of emotions in the film. The rest of the cast also do a great job with conveying the film’s themes of class struggles and doesn’t feel extremely preachy about it, in fact it does an excellent job showcasing how these characters react to certain big situations and creates for an excellent social commentary. There are even some social commentary on race as well with the whole element of the “white voice” that comes into play with Cassius job and it’s not only very humorous with actors like David Cross and Patton Oswald giving great performances, but also very intriguing way of talking about a racial commentary. The only issue is that while the voice thing does become a big part of the film, by the third act, it’s essentially forgotten about and doesn’t tied into the plot as much as other things. This is due to the film’s strange twist which is a clever commentary but more than that, just makes the film completely unpredictable, and makes the audience care even more about what will happen to the characters of this film. It’s an overall neat experience to witness characters like this and social commentary so impactful in a film that’s just so unique and outlandish.

   Sorry to Bother You deserves to be seen as a movie that takes risks and becomes a unique experience. It’s certainly one of the cleverest movies released in a long time. It is definitely one that not everyone will get behind, but the fact that a movie that’s so new and refreshing comes out like this, it has be seen by anyone who is searching for a new experience in film. A film will so much style, detail and distinctiveness like this deserves to be appreciated on many levels.