Michael's Movie Grade: D-
An unfunny and obnoxious satire.
In this film, a group of women rob clothing stores and sell the clothes they steal at discount prices calling it a community service. When a clothes designer insults them on TV, they set out for personal vengeance.
This is a strong premise that is capable of being either a fun heist film or a biting political commentary. While there are moments of both shown here, they are ultimately drowned out by an overabundance of absurdist comedy. Making this worse is that none of the humor is actually funny. Writer/director Boots Riley's approach to comedy here is to simply throw everything including the kitchen sink at the audience. The result is a film that is bizarre and surreal but never actually funny. It seems like we are supposed to find these moments funny simply because of how weird and over the top they are. It sadly does not work this way, and I did not laugh once watching this movie. The audience in the theater with me laughed a few times but were silent through most of the movie. This is a problem when there is an absurd gag nearly every second. Neither is this comedy ever well utilized in the story or the political commentary. Often times humor can make a political point stronger by pointing out the absurdity of what is happening in the world. That is definitely not the case here. The absurdist humor has little to do with the political message and more often simply distracts from it. Sometimes it seems like just when the movie is actually going to say something worthwhile, it instead hints at something profound before going back to the unrelated absurdist humor. The few times it actually says something, there is no subtlety or nuance to the way the message is conveyed.
I loved Boots Riley's first movie Sorry to Bother You (2018). That movie was smart, thought-provoking, funny and wildly funny. Sadly, his sophomore effort is none of those things.
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