Sorry to Bother You (directed by Boots Riley, writer of Superbad) was a movie Ray Bradbury would love.
I was such a huge Fahrenheit 451 fan having taught it for years and Sorry to Bother You certainly had the dystopian society function on high. In Fahrenheit 451, Midlred is addicted to violent tv shows that everyone thinks are hilarious.
And today, if you watch Highly Questionable (a show that I like except for when they laugh hysterically at people beating each other up) you’ll get an unfortunate sneak preview into the dystopian world of Sorry to Bother You with a tv show called (I believe) I Got the Sh*& Kicked Out of Me where people humiliate themselves and get beat up for fame and possibly fortune.
And that’s just one of the many subversive tricks Boots uses to get our attention. His evil corporation looks eerily like what they already have in China, whereby people live like sardines in dormitories attached to their work places.
If it couldn’t actually happen someday, Sorry To Bother You would be knee slapping science fiction. However, due to the fact that we have become a stupid society praising big wealth, numb to social issues that matter, rather obsessing about who the ruler is instead of caring about the issues, and that act like we are helplessly hooked to our devices and violent images makes Sorry To Bother You maybe the most relevant movie of our times, a social satire to wake us up, if it’s not too late.
I am happy to say that I am living life, and thank God, right? Because who knows if our society isn’t on the border of the violent revolution Boots predicts since people have stopped loving each other based on whether you like donkeys or elephants, meanwhile being brainwashed by a vile media. And anyway, my dermatologist may find some deadly mole on my next visit this week. So why not Carpe diem Baby. Crank up the R.E.M. I say, “It’s the End of the World as We Know it.” But seriously, I hope it’s not.
I promise if you see Sorry to Bother You, you’ll surely laugh and then think the same as me. Acting cred goes to the main actor: Lakeith Stanfield, a relative newbie whose biggest known role is probably the hit show Atlanta. And I can’t help but mention that handsome hunk of a man Armie Hammer, who got even sexier in this film by sporting a beard all while playing the most despicably funny role in the film.
What a great way to end a weekend.
