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Like the film itself, the very title of Sorry to Bother You (2018) is an insincere and impenitent declaration. In an interview with Fresh Air, the rapper-turned-director Boots Riley described his first movie as “an absurdist, dark comedy with magical realism and science fiction inspired by the world of telemarketing”. As promised, there is a lot to unpack.
There are a lot of big ideas in Sorry to Bother You, like corporate greed and dehumanization of labor, and how they are inextricably linked with everyday racism. The film is not a standard social commentary, but rather a rambunctious, surreal satire that remains outlandish right until the last scene.
How Does Sorry to Bother You End?
If Sorry to Bother You does not hold back before, its final act completely goes off the rails. In his sales pitch to Cassius ‘Cash’ Green (LaKeith Stanfield from Get Out), Steve Lift (Armie Hammer) explains how genetically engineering the next generation of workers (through the ingestion of white powder) will be profitable for the company. These human-horse hybrids represent the cyclical struggle for one’s humanity in a capitalist system. Steve proposes that Cash becomes “the Equisapien Martin Luther King Jr., but one that we create, one that we control”. In exchange for a 5-year contract, Cash will not only get $100 million but, as Steve gleefully emphasizes, a horse’s genitalia.
The next morning, Cash realizes that he dropped his phone when he came across the Equisapiens. Detroit (Tessa Thompson, known for playing Valkyrie in the MCU films) shows him a video that they sent her from his phone, pleading for help. This is the turning point for Cash, from being a cog in a profit-driven machine to a union rebel. He takes advantage of being the subject of the infamous meme by appearing on the television show I Got the Shit Kicked Out of Me (which mirrors modern reality television by catering to society’s penchant for watching people get humiliated). After enduring similar pain, Cash is allowed to share the video and expose WorryFree’s plans.
However, this backfires: Equisapiens are considered a brilliant scientific feat and the company’s stock value increases. Cash uses the security code from the Equisapiens’ video to sneak into Steve’s mansion. Together with the union organizer Squeeze (Steven Yeun from The Walking Dead), Detroit and Salvador (Jermaine Fowler), he rallies the union against RegalView. The police start a riot and detain him, until the Equisapiens arrive and overpower them. Although this may only be a small victory, it helps the workers recognize their power, which is the first step towards creating change.
At first, Sorry to Bother You teases a happy ending: Cash reconciles with Detroit, moves back to Sergio's (played by Terry Crews) garage (which displays only a few souvenirs from his former luxury life), and plans to return to his old job. However, any hope for the future shatters when Cash’s face contorts to reveal giant nostrils. Even though Steve had insisted earlier that he gave Cash cocaine, he actually dosed him with white powder to mutilate him.
The final moments of Sorry to Bother You show a fully transformed Cash storming into Steve’s house with other Equisapiens for revenge. In an interview with Thrillist, Riley stated:
He doesn’t only turn into an Equisapien. He fights back. I think that it is a happy ending, but it’s a different kind of happy ending. It’s one that says nobody gets out of this clean and there’s no way we can’t be affected by this world. But the point is you keep fighting.
What Is Sorry to Bother You About?
Director | Boots Riley |
|---|---|
Writer | Boots Riley |
Cast | LaKeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Armie Hammer, Steven Yeun, Jermaine Fowler |
Release Date | July 6, 2018 (United States) |
Runtime | 112 minutes |
Where To Watch |
Set in a near-future or alternate dystopian Oakland, Sorry to Bother You introduces the mild-mannered Cash, who lives in his uncle’s garage and struggles to pay the rent. He has a girlfriend named Detroit, who wears supersized, politically-conscious earrings and twirls business signs to make ends meet. Although Cash lies about his qualifications during a job interview with RegalView, his audacity turns out to be a perfect fit for the position: a telemarketer.
Soon, he is shown crashing from his drab little booth into people’s homes, highlighting the intrusiveness of cold calls. Although he dutifully abides by the golden rule (“stick to the script”), he does not succeed. This is when a coworker advises him to use his “white voice” to convey empowerment to the buyers. The code-switching works: the oratorical power of Cash’s chipper, white voice (dubbed by David Cross) eventually helps him climb up the corporate ladder.
Just when his coworkers make a bid to unionize, Cash is promoted to the elite Power Caller role. The accounts and commissions are bigger “upstairs”, and the only rule is to always use the white voice. Cash buys a flashier car and a bare, stark-white apartment (as if he is literally being stripped of his humanity). He distances himself from the union struggle, which alienates him from his friends and Detroit. During a protest, he is hit on the head with a soda can by a white woman (“Have a cola and smile, bitch!”) — making her a viral sensation. This act of capitalizing on black people is a reference to Kendall Jenner’s controversial Pepsi commercial — reinforcing how Sorry to Bother You has no time for subtleties.
Cash soon discovers that RegalView sells cheap labor from the large corporation WorryFree, which offers housing and food in exchange for lifetime servitude (basically rebranded slavery). A group called Left Eye leads a protest movement against WorryFree, in which Detroit secretly participates. She breaks up with Cash due to his changing loyalties. It is worth noting that, for all that she has to say, Detroit also employs a white voice (dubbed by Lily James) in a performance piece, while selling art to wealthy white people.
Mr. Blank (Omari Hardwick from The Mother) is the only other black Power Caller, whose lack of name demonstrates how he has given up his identity for money. He tells Cash that the WorryFree CEO Steve Lift wants him to attend a party at his house. The predominantly white gathering turns out to be wild, and Steve coerces Cash into performing rap for his guests. Realizing what the audience wants, Cash ends up chanting the N-word repeatedly —making him a success in Steve’s eyes.
Later, in Steve’s office, Cash snorts what looks like a line of cocaine. While looking for the bathroom, he accidentally encounters shackled abominations — or, as Steve explains, “beautiful perversions” that have been genetically tampered with, to create a new, oppressed workforce.
What Is Sorry to Bother You’s Rotten Tomatoes Score?
Sorry to Bother You has a score of 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 312 reviews. The critics’ consensus is as follows:
Fearlessly ambitious, scathingly funny, and thoroughly original, Sorry to Bother You loudly heralds the arrival of a fresh filmmaking talent in writer-director Boots Riley.
The film is a whimsical, spirited satire that unapologetically confronts a number of societal horrors. In fact, the meaning of Sorry to Bother You cannot be limited to a single idea. With its bold colors, unsettling background score and bizarre visuals, it veers in many different directions, but it is its strong conviction that makes the audience appreciate and ponder over those ideas.
