Movie Review: Sorry to Bother You

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland










Michael's Movie Grade: A-

Review: A highly intelligent and very funny satire, that's message really packs a strong punch.

This movie starts out as a fairly straightforward satire of race relations and the negative aspects of capitalism. These scenes while more conventional than what would come later, are still very good. The humor is really funny, and there are plenty of times I laughed out loud, especially at the opening. Even in these scenes though, the film makes its serious points. Both of these are seen in the "white voice." This is when Cassius (Lakeith Stansfield) uses a voice to sound like a white guy in order to make his job as a telemarketer more successful. This voice is actually provided by David Cross, and Stansfield simply mouths along. This is both really funny (and it is used to good effect in some great jokes) and quite unnerving. The effect never feels real as the lip-sync doesn't always full match what is being said. This is definitely done on purpose. It gives us a feeling of dishonesty. Cassius is betraying who he is to make money. While he is figuratively selling his soul at this and other times in the movie, the film never asks us to condemn him for it. He lives in a capitalistic society and badly needs money. He is desperate and feels he needs to do this. This is something many of us can easily relate to. It helps us also fully connect with the film as it becomes more surreal. This change is rather abrupt, and can alienate some people from the movie. However to me that's what makes it work. Though I won't go into much detail about what happens to Cassius after the "white voice" (trust me you will not see much of this coming), the world around him becomes more surreal and we are whisked into this world as suddenly as our hero is, and we are figuring things out at the same time he does. This fully puts us in the character's shoes as we are just as shocked by the plot twists as he is. Much of the imagery later in this film becomes much more stranger and at times even Fellini-esque (the scene with his girlfriend's (Tessa Thompson) performance especially stands out).


This movie's title is just as much satire as the film itself. This film is not sorry to bother anyone. In fact in many ways it is a call to arms against any injustice. Despite the title the film openly rails against anyone who chooses not to care about the state of the world around them as long as they are alright. It tells one to get out of their comfy chair and actually do something about the things that aren't right in this world. This message will certainly make many watching this film uncomfortable in a way few mainstream movies even try to do.


Truth be told not everything in this movie works. For instance the reality show parodies seem out of place. Reality shows are also an extremely easy target that have been made fun of plenty of times, and nothing new is added here. These scenes are also simply not funny and feel below the rest of the satire the movie gives us. Still truth be told this is small complaint for a very great movie.

-Michael J. Ruhland