I Love Boosters: ★★★
Predictably absurd, I Love Boosters is a technicolour fever dream. Keke Palmer’s impassioned fashion-designer vagabond Corvette and her crew of extravagant shoplifters, or ‘Boosters’, take on big fashion in this satirical sojourn into the mind of Boots Riley, who has already taken us on an absurd and hilarious ride with Sorry To Bother You.
In a similar vein to Sorry to Bother You, I Love Boosters takes you down pathways you didn’t see coming, because why would you; they’re ridiculous. The extravagance and bells and whistles of I Love Boosters did take over from some of the backstory, which I’d have liked to see fleshed out more, but the garish, bizarre, and chaotic story is full of fun performances and bonkers plot developments. Keke Palmer was wacky and wonderful, and LaKeith Stanfield, playing Pinky Ring Guy, was smooth, suave, and oddly intense.
I won’t reveal what happens, but if you’ve seen Sorry To Bother You, let’s just say this film certainly isn’t any less peculiar. We follow a cohort of boosters, the “Velvet Gang”, as they take on big fashion, one shoplift at a time. Specifically targeting Metro Designers fashion chain run by designer Christie Smith, played by a cutthroat and punchy Demi Moore. The performative and pretentious nature of designer stores was embodied by one of the Metro shop managers, Grayson, played by a smarmy, entitled Will Poulter, a company man through and through, and whose store is a prime target for our Boosters.
Neon / Universal Pictures
As the film goes on, it increasingly resembles the sensation of walking through some sort of hall of mirrors in an amusement house – round every corner you’re unsure what’s coming next, but you’ve got to just roll with it, and you’re having a pretty good time if not a little confused. Our Velvet Gang, and Corvette in particular, become increasingly aware of the immoral elements of Metro, and big fashion in general, and the film makes a point to highlight the exploitative nature of manufacturing corporations.
Touching on workers’ rights, big fashion, psycho capitalism and some physics-altering technology, I Love Boosters is a breathless but fun watch, bursting with colour and brimming with bizarreness, if not lacking a little bit of charm.
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