SXSW 2026 | Movie Review: Capitalism Takedown In "I Love Boosters" Is A Step Up For "Sorry To Bother You" Director, Boots Riley
10/12 ForReel Score | 4/5 Stars
If the eyes are the window to the soul, then the screen is the window to the mind. At least, so is the case with writer, director, rapper, songwriter, record producer, self-proclaimed-communist Boots Riley. Not only is Riley a founding member of the political hip-hop group The Coup, he's also one of the most idiosyncratic voices in Western cinema right now. Both his debut, Sorry to Bother You, and his recent miniseries, I'm a Virgo, are cornerstones of contemporary afrosurrealism, elevated by Riley’s vibrant color palettes and brazenly unsubtle sociopolitical commentary. Riley’s latest, I Love Boosters, may be messy, but it's also a stroke of genius in equal measure.
Image courtesy of Neon
Named after The Coup’s song of the same name (which, retrospectively, is a three-minute microcosm of the film) I Love Boosters is Riley’s most ambitious work by far—which is really saying something. Corvette (Keke Palmer), alongside her friends Sade (Naomi Ackie) and Mariah (Taylour Paige) are “boosters”—shoplifters—who, as Riley says in the song, “jack from the retail and [sell] it in the hood for dirt-cheap resale.” The retail in question: a self-titled fashion empire owned by Christie Smith (Demi Moore). A lesser filmmaker would've played in the class warfare sandbox and called it a day, but Riley is simultaneously asking questions and providing answers. Capitalism is legalized boosting, creating a feedback loop that only benefits the top of the food chain. Hence Riley’s solution: class solidarity.
As a former Nickelodeon kid, Keke Palmer’s been on my radar since True Jackson, VP, a live-audience sitcom where Palmer (ironically) played the vice president of a massive fashion empire. Since then, she's become a formidable lead actor in films like One of Them Days and Jordan Peele’s Nope, quickly climbing up the rankings of my favorite working actors. Riley gives Palmer so much to work with, which pays off in absolute dividends. Not only is Keke Palmer’s expressiveness magnetic in either direction of the emotional spectrum, she also perfectly matches Riley’s heightened absurdism; I was sold on Corvette as soon as she started to do the Looney Tunes run. I wouldn't go as far as to say this is Palmer’s best work (Nope undoubtedly takes that prize), although she's undoubtedly cemented herself as a dependable lead.
Image courtesy of Neon
If you're going into a Boots Riley film expecting apoliticism (the debut Coup album is literally called Kill Your Landlord), I suggest you take a hard look in the mirror. The son of civil rights activist Walter Riley, Boots has been an avid activist and political organizer since the age of fourteen; needless to say, solidarity's in Boots Riley’s bones. Sorry to Bother You shared similar themes of class warfare and workers’ rights—enough to make I Love Boosters feel like a companion piece—though the former is far more scattershot in terms of social commentary. I Love Boosters is a top-down takedown of capital through the lens of the fashion industry, dissecting the ladder (or, pyramid scheme) between CEO and sweatshop via our beloved Boosters.
Riley’s operating on levels that were thought left in the 20th century, blending miniatures and stop motion to near-seamless effect. Not only is Riley’s direction more confident than ever, but his visual language becomes more distinct with each entry in his oeuvre; I would call it “a swing for the fences” if it wasn't Riley’s whole schtick. Set designs are literally off-kilter, and the costuming is both loud and chic. For better or worse, there's not a minute of I Love Boosters that doesn't feel authentically man-made. As the cloud of cookie-cutter corporate filmmaking and AI looms heavier over Hollywood, we need creatives like Boots Riley more than ever. Regardless of my familiarity with Riley, I Love Boosters feels fresh to no end.
Image courtesy of Neon
That said, not every swing for the fences is a home run. Maybe it’s due to sheer “what the fuck”-factor, but I Love Boosters is so out-there and fast-paced that I could feel my brain struggle to keep up with Riley’s. As refreshing as it is to be mainlined into the brain of a creative at the height of his powers, it comes at the cost of narrative coherence—something that Riley ignores to the verge of recklessness. Despite I Love Boosters’ slight shortcomings, I look forward to rewatching this with the twists and turns in mind, as I know there's so many more layers to peel back on further viewings; every scene is thoroughly layered with a blend of in-your-face text and dense subtext.
Some might call I Love Boosters overstuffed (I would be inclined to agree), although its shortcomings are tremendously overshadowed by Riley’s explosive sense of cinematic ingenuity. I can't name a single creative working today that can even come close to sharing Riley’s magnitudinous—like if Spike Lee and George Lucas were to experience the human equivalent of nuclear fusion. Does I Love Boosters reach the finish line scot-free? I don't think so. Is it a cinematic experience rivaled only by that of Boots Riley's other work? Absolutely. Not for a moment was I under the impression that I Love Boosters would be a certified crowd pleaser, though, as someone who's tuned into Riley’s style, I had an absolute field day.