I Love Boosters: A Technicolour Takedown of Capitalism
Boots Riley has delivered a riotous, technicolour fantasia that serves as a dazzling, albeit subversive, takedown of capitalism in I Love Boosters. In a cinematic landscape often bogged down by muted tones, Riley is a glorious peacock, using his lens not just to observe but to celebrate the screaming, unapologetic vibrancy of excess.
His work feels indecently alive, playing with the very framework of cinema to explore themes of class and commerce. <I Love Boosters> centers on the Velvet Gang, a trio of professional shoplifters who engage in the audacious act of stealing designer clothes. Their goal is to sell these luxurious items cheaply to those whose sartorial ambitions vastly outpace their bank accounts.
At the heart of the narrative is Corvette, played by Keke Palmer, a turquoise-loving ringleader with boundless ambition to ascend into high fashion. Her quest to dismantle the system takes a sharp turn when she confronts Christie Smith, the mathematician turned fashion mogul, whose business model perfectly encapsulates Riley’s critique: exploitation dressed up and sold back to the consumer with an exorbitant mark-up.
What begins as a simple heist quickly transforms into a complex battle between Corvette and Christie, as Riley sends his thieves deeper into the machinery of the fashion industry. The simple rich-versus-poor equation gets delightfully muddied when the people dismantling the system are not immune to wanting the very power and luxury they are fighting against.
The visual experience of the film is equally stunning. Costume designer Shirley Kurata works in tandem with Riley’s cartoonish, lightly surreal aesthetic to create a world saturated with glorious excess. The film is a feast of screaming colour and maximalist silhouettes, channeling a fashionable fever dream straight out of a high-end runway event.
Riley fills this fashion-world fantasia with stars accustomed to the Met Gala steps in couture, dressing them as though the invitation had stipulated “Eat the Rich Avant-Garde” and everyone had actually bothered to stay on theme.
The ensemble cast adds another layer of texture to this chaotic brilliance. Naomi Ackie and Taylour Paige join Palmer in the Velvet Gang, while LaKeith Stanfield, Don Cheadle, and Demi Moore populate a group that understands precisely the frequency Riley is broadcasting.
Riley’s political commentary is woven seamlessly into the fabric of the film. He prioritizes visual gags, sharp arguments, and outright political instruction, ensuring that the film marches to its own uncompromising beat. While the sheer volume of content can occasionally make it challenging to absorb every instruction, the film’s singularity ensures its message is delivered with force.
In an increasingly risk-averse cinematic landscape, encountering an artist so uncompromising in both style and substance is a refreshing experience. Boots Riley may not always know quite when to pause, but when much of cinema seems afraid to leave the runway, it is hard to begrudge him the altitude he so effortlessly achieves.
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