Boots Riley Is Back – Minority Mindset

LaKeith Stanfield unexpectedly dropped the mic during a Q&A session, declaring, “I’m just sucking souls out of vaginas!” before playfully exiting the stage. This bizarre moment perfectly captured the unique and energetic atmosphere of the premiere of Boots Riley’s I Love Boosters at SXSW. While Stanfield’s statement raised eyebrows, the audience was prepared for an unconventional experience, and Riley delivered just that.

As a huge fan of Boots Riley’s work since Sorry to Bother You, I was really excited for his new film, Boosters. And let me tell you, it doesn’t disappoint! It’s even more wild and imaginative than his last one – think bright, over-the-top visuals and costumes. The story follows a crew of female shoplifters, led by the fantastic Keke Palmer, who are basically modern-day Robin Hoods, stealing from a high-end chain store headed by a delightfully icy Demi Moore. They then sell the goods at affordable prices to people in need. It all builds into a really powerful statement about capitalism and worker solidarity, and honestly, it really hits home with how many of us feel lost and powerless these days, not just in America, but everywhere.

Riley, known for his tall fedora and striking black-and-white suit, described the film as lighthearted but also deeply relevant. He believes it’s a timely message about the need to address current issues and work towards positive change, even fighting against oppressive systems and reshaping the world.

Riley confessed he’d often purchased items from resellers. This led him to consider the broader ideas behind his designs – the artistic side of fashion, its cost, the labor involved, and the irony that many of the people who create it can’t afford to buy it themselves. He also believes women should have free access to fashion, arguing it’s essential for their participation in society.

I was immediately captivated by the opening of Boosters. The camera follows Palmer as she moves through this vibrant Oakland club, clearly on the hunt for something fun. She locks eyes with this incredibly charming guy, Stanfield, but surprisingly chooses someone a bit more… conventional. She brings him back to her place, and I honestly thought things were headed in one direction – until she opened the door to reveal racks and racks of red shoes! It’s a brilliant twist – he thinks she’s leading him on, but she’s actually trying to sell him footwear. It’s such a clever and unexpected moment.

Corvette, played by Palmer, is facing hard times and currently crashing on a friend’s couch in a converted fast-food restaurant – complete with a still-lit-up menu and a makeshift kitchen shower. She and her friends, Sade and Mariah, are broke but resourceful. They’ve become the Velvet Gang, a stylish trio of shoplifters who steal from Christie Smith, the designer behind the high-end Metro Designs label. Smith is a talented but ruthless boss who mistreats her employees. The Velvet Gang then sells the stolen goods to their fashionable community, operating out of vans. Their philosophy is simple: ‘Fashion. Forward. Philanthropy.’

About once a month, the visual style of Metro Designs shifts to a new single color, which means Riley and Shirley Kurata, the costume designer, are constantly redesigning the set – changing it from green to yellow, and so on. These changes also trigger another heist, often involving a distraction created by a white woman. Throughout the film, you’ll find uniquely Boots Riley-esque moments, like Palmer leading a self-help session in a discount furniture store while sitting in a massage chair that repeatedly presses into her face. Or, a massive pile of receipts and eviction notices, towering over two stories high, occasionally rolls down the street towards Corvette, threatening to crush her unless she continues to steal.

The movie truly gains momentum with the introduction of Jianhu (Poppy Liu), a brilliant inventor who can teleport. She arrives from a Metro Design factory in China with a straightforward request: a 30% raise and an end to the dangerous practice of sandblasting jeans, which is causing cancer among the workers. What makes Riley’s film – a project five years in the making – so enjoyable is its series of wild and unexpected events, and some of the highlights include:

Demi Moore screaming “mumblecrust whores”

In her first film since being nominated for an Oscar for Substance, Moore seems to be thoroughly enjoying her role. Her character exudes a powerful, commanding presence, reminiscent of Miranda Priestly, with a subtly critical edge like Leslie Bibb in The White Lotus. She plays Christie Smith, a brilliant artist and scientist from MIT who became a Chanel designer at just fifteen years old. Christie is furious that a group called the Velvet Gang is stealing her designs and cutting into her profits, and she expresses her anger with colorful, though harsh, language, including insults like “Mumblecrust whores!” and a pointed, if contradictory, remark about “low-class urban bitches.”

Moore said she was surprised and flattered to be asked to be in a Boots Riley film, admitting she hadn’t expected to be considered for such a project. However, she was eager to participate because it was a unique opportunity she hadn’t had before.

Christie’s leaning glass office

The building stands out like a gleaming, tilted Tower of Pisa amidst typical skyscrapers, and it’s the source of many of the film’s funniest moments. For example, a character tries to enter an office disguised as a coffee cart, but struggles to escape because the sloping floor causes them to repeatedly slip and fall.

The Juicy Couture Stay Puft moments

Corvette and Sade try to disguise themselves by piling clothes onto their bodies, but they overdo it – using so many outfits that their escape becomes a clumsy waddle. It’s so exaggerated, they end up looking like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters, if he were wearing pink Juicy Couture and a wig.

The Jason Ritter cameo

As a film fan, I was really struck by how Riley uses news snippets in his movie. He throws in these dramatic on-screen headlines – chyrons, they’re called – featuring a guy claiming worker strikes traumatized him, presented as a pillar of the community, and then cuts to a Black mother pleading for more police presence. It quickly becomes clear, though, that this whole setup is part of a larger conspiracy within the film’s narrative.

Will Poulter’s store manager

It turns out Metro Designs is exploiting its employees by making them purchase the expensive, single-color outfits they’re required to wear on the job. This is revealed through the comically eccentric Poulter, who plays the store manager. He changes his hair color to match each outfit scheme and masks his dishonest behavior with a rule that blasts techno music constantly. He even uses a volume dial – switching to “Low-Key” for meaningless corporate jargon and “Max Vibes” to explain how he’s taking advantage of workers, while ensuring they can’t clearly hear him.

The teleportation

Jianhu quickly steals everything from a store using a special bag and two small, doughnut-shaped devices. These devices, which she took from a factory in China, can teleport items and break things down. When used, they release a powerful stream of energy that looks like a jet of water.

The film has different modes to explore, and at one memorable moment, a police car transforms into a monster truck driven by Eric André, complete with his signature maniacal laugh. At the premiere, André – dressed in a caftan and straw hat – announced he’d finished his work in just 15 minutes. Everyone assumed he was director Boots Riley, which allowed him to enter the theater. Riley later shared that he’s often mistaken for André, and people frequently buy him drinks as a result.

I have to say, Eiza González is amazing in this! She plays this coworker of the main characters who’s always smoking pot, but she’s also surprisingly knowledgeable about really complex stuff like teleportation and quantum physics. She totally steals every scene she’s in!

The skinless (literally) corporate goons

Without giving away too much, the team finds themselves chased by a crazed group of villains – disturbingly realistic, red-toned muscle figures brought to life through stop-motion animation. These villains are essentially skinless corporate enforcers.

The soul-sucking oral sex

Movies have featured surprisingly explicit depictions of oral sex this year. In Sinners, a character enjoys it while being watched, and in Marty Supreme, Gwyneth Paltrow’s character is so captivated that it leads to a near-arrest in Central Park.

One of the most memorable scenes in Boosters involves Stanfield’s enigmatic character, who is pursuing Corvette, bringing a friend home with him. As they describe what happened, the scene depicts a remarkably passionate act, so intense that the woman begins to float. It’s an incredibly graphic and extended depiction of oral sex, complete with visual details. However, the camera then pulls back to reveal that the figure performing the act isn’t a man at all, but a demonic creature resembling a dinosaur.

“Too bad,” one of the Velvet Gang sighs. “He’s fine as hell.”

You know, Stanfield shared a really sweet moment with the audience – he pointed out that the actress in that particular scene was actually his wife! Then, he turned to Riley and basically gave him a green light for future projects. He said next time he has a movie idea, he won’t even need to formally pitch it, just a quick phone call will do. It was a really cool, trusting vibe.

“Me too,” said Palmer.

“Me three,” chimed in everyone else.

2026-03-13 21:56