Sorry to Bother You  

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“If Mike Judge’s Office Space and Robert Downey Sr.’s Putney Swope hooked up after a night of bingeing on hallucinogens, Marxist theory and the novels of Paul Beatty and Colson Whitehead, the offspring might look something like this.”-- A.O. Scott (The New York Times)


"In 2018 both Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You and Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman put the trope of the "white voice" in their plots."--Sholem Stein

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Sorry to Bother You is a 2018 American science-fiction dark comedy film written and directed by Boots Riley, in his directorial debut. It stars Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Jermaine Fowler, Omari Hardwick, Terry Crews, Patton Oswalt, David Cross, Danny Glover, Steven Yeun, and Armie Hammer. The film follows a young black telemarketer who adopts a white accent to succeed at his job. Swept into a corporate conspiracy, he must choose between profit and joining his activist friends to organize labor.

Plot

Cassius "Cash" Green lives in his uncle's garage with his girlfriend, Detroit, an artist. Struggling to pay rent, Cash gets a job as a telemarketer for RegalView. Cash has trouble talking to customers until an older co-worker teaches him to use his "white voice", at which Cash excels.

Cash's coworker Squeeze forms a union and recruits Cash, Detroit, and their friend Sal. When Cash participates in a protest, he expects to be fired but is instead promoted to an elite Power Caller position. In the luxurious Power Caller suite, Cash is told to always use his white voice, and learns that RegalView secretly sells arms and unpaid human labor from the corporation WorryFree.

Though Cash is initially uncomfortable with the job, he can now afford a new car and apartment and pays off his uncle's home. Working long hours, he stops participating in the union, and his relationship with Detroit deteriorates. When Cash crosses the union's picket line, one of the picketers hits him with a can of soda. Footage of the incident becomes an internet meme.

Cash is invited to a party with WorryFree CEO Steve Lift. Lift offers Cash a powdered substance which Cash snorts, believing it is cocaine. Looking for the bathroom, Cash discovers a shackled half-horse, half-human hybrid who begs him for help. Lift explains that WorryFree plans to make their workers stronger and more obedient by transforming them into "equisapiens". The transformation occurs when a human snorts a gene-modifying powder. Cash fears he just snorted the substance, but Lift assures him it was cocaine. Cash refuses a $100 million offer to become an equisapien and act as a false revolutionary figure to keep the employees in line.

Cash discovers he dropped his phone when he encountered the equisapien, who recorded a plea for help and sent it to Detroit's phone. To spread the video, Cash appears on television shows, including I Got the Shit Kicked Out Of Me, enduring humiliations and beatings to get the video played. The plan backfires. The equisapiens are hailed as a groundbreaking scientific advancement, and WorryFree's stock reaches an all-time high. Cash apologizes to Squeeze, Sal, and Detroit, and joins the union in a final stand against RegalView.

Cash uses a security code from the equisapiens video to break into Lift's home. He goes to the picket line, where the police start a riot and knock him out. The equisapiens overpower the police and free Cash. Detroit and Cash reconcile and move back into his uncle's garage, but Cash starts to grow horse nostrils. Fully transformed, he leads a mob of equisapiens to Lift's house and breaks down the door.

Cast

See also




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Sorry to Bother You" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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