A financially-challenged man gets a job as a telemarketer, and quickly finds himself complicit in a nightmarish, dystopian scheme to sell arms and de facto slave labor.
Sorry to Bother You, the full-feature debut of rapper/composer/director Boots Riley, begins as an inventive comedy. The film, for example, literally drops its cold-calling protagonist, Cassius, into the lives of the people he phones at their most inconvenient moments. Gradually, it opens into a broader satire, with the humour turning very dark and disturbing. Overall, the approach proves distressingly effective. By the final act, we're full-tilt into SF dystopia, slightly reminiscent of Kurt Vonnegut, with elements so absurd they could be contemporary news. The actors do a good job, overall, of realizing the script. As for its visuals, the director's inventiveness combine with modern tech to create impressive effects shots where required.
Satirists are at war with the world,…