Ultimately, the film is a devastating takedown of capitalism, portraying people giving up their freedom so they don’t have to worry about money. This sharp exploration of black identity and its suppression is actually just a subplot, though. When he realises he is going to be marketing a workforce of virtual slaves, he says no – until he sees the pay cheque.Ĭorroded souls … Tessa Thompson and Lakeith Stanfield in Sorry to Bother You. However, in this brilliantly absurdist film, Cash takes it too far and it ends up corroding his soul. It’s about finding the personality that helps you advance. To get anywhere in corporate America, it’s often essential – which is why Cash’s white-voice routine resonates with so many people. Most black and brown workers perform some version of it. There is nothing wrong with code-switching, though. In Sorry to Bother You, Cash does some Jedi-level “ code-switching” – using different personas to speak to different racial audiences. But on a deeper level, watching Cash learn to “sound white”, and have his career skyrocket as a result, is a superb parody of something that many black people in the corporate world have found: in order to succeed, you have to perform your personality in a way that is pleasing to white people. To see one of the blackest actors in the game adopt such a voice – actually delivered by the very white and very funny David Cross – is a gag that never stops giving. Watch the trailer for Sorry to Bother You The film shows how easily people will compromise their principles for money – and, more frightening still, how far owners and management will go to create perfectly obedient workers. We’re used to seeing the rich portrayed as evil, but here we see people sell their souls to ascend the corporate ladder. Sorry to Bother You, set in an alternative version of that Californian city, is one of the most anti-capitalist movies Hollywood has ever produced. These questions are at the core of Sorry to Bother You, a comedy-drama starring Lakeith Stanfield and Tessa Thompson, written and directed by Boots Riley, a rapper with Oakland band the Coup. But how do you entice them to let you stand on their backs so you can make more money than them, and what do you owe them for that privilege? To achieve the American dream of boundless wealth, you need to stand on many other people’s backs. A wealthy man once told me that you can’t get really rich unless you have other people working for you.

Sorry to bother you film