Sorry to Bother You

I always try to base my judgement of a film, on how much it can bring forth my emotions. The more a film can invoke my feelings the; whether that be love, fear or joy. That is what makes a movie great. I have stuck to that rule my whole life, and whether I am feeling in awe at another Nolan epic, or pure bitter frustration at sharknado 13, I have never stumbled across a single film to which I can make an exception.

That was in fact until I embarked on the journey known as "sorry to bother you".

This film is strange. I mean, reallyyy strange. A dystopian reality is constructed, using cheerful and colourful, mise-en-scene, picture and sound; as a poorly crafted mask to cover the dark undertones which hide in plain sight. The acting? Seamless. The humour? Hilarious. The plot? A positive unorthodox. And yet what emotion of mine does this film invoke? Misery.

The alternative reality conjured is so surreal, yet so real. The psychopathic nature of every single aspect of this creation bears all too many similarities to the world we too live in. So hyperbolized, so ridiculous, but still so true. Immediately after whatching this film I had to call my best friend, just to hear a sane voice, as even the one in my own head was failing to provide me that comfort.

This film does exactly what it sets out to do, it does so in stupendous fashion. And yet, I hated it. I recommended that none of my friends watch it. Though smiling throughout, my overall emotion was of such discomfort, that I really did not want anybody to go through the same. This is the best worst film I have ever seen. My rating has fluctuated from 4-10 throughout the writing of this review. But here you have it. 7/10. My final answer, a mediocre score, for a far from mediocre film.

Sorry To Bother You is a weird film. Not that that's a bad thing. It takes strange twists and turns, all while saying interesting things and presenting something thought provoking.

STBY is about Cassius "Cash" Green, a man who just needs to make a buck at his horrible telemarketer job and just get by. After finding he has a talent for sales while using his "white voice", he's propelled to the upper echelon of elite salespeople at the company. But that's just the first act. Any more and I'll spoil what this film has in store for you. The pace of it all is very quick and kept me wondering what could happen next. Every time I thought I knew where it was going, it jerked me into another dimension. The only gripe I had with the story is that the side plot of the friend who is trying to get with his girlfriend seems totally unnecessary. It could be taken out of the movie completely and nothing would be different.

The acting is great, with all the actors either embracing the insanity or not knowing what exactly to do with it. Everyone is fun to watch and see how they would react to their new situations.

The cinematography was excellent. From the first act and how dull and drab and out of focus everything is due to our main character's disinterest in his life and job, to the second act's sharp clarity where he is focused on doing the best he can at his job. The third act feels like a dream where everything is bright but hazy. There's a lot of great subtle visual metaphors throughout that make it fun to analyze as well. I would love to watch this again and see what I missed.

The soundtrack for this is just as trippy and weird. Lots of loops and weird instrumentation can be heard. Some members of the band Tune-Yards do the composition and it really does show. It keeps the kooky and psychedelic atmosphere alive.

Aside from some wonky "white voice" lip sync and the one story gripe, this is an awesome movie. Don't expect to laugh as much, but definitely expect to say "WTF???!!???" a whole lot.

I won't give anything away, but just prepare to be shocked and a little messed up by this movie. It's an understatement to say that it's not the movie you think you're gonna see. With that being said, it's got plenty of humor and we really liked it...but it definitely messed us up a little. You're gonna want to phone a friend after the movie ends so you can re-adjust to the real world.

Awesome satire movie, some moments i feel i was watching a Atlanta episode, others black mirror and ended up being a twilight zone episode! there is a lot of dark humor over here, is a thinking pay attention movie to catch a lot of the jokes.

if you like weird movies you should watch this one for sure!

Wow, there are a lot of people who don't like this movie, and moreover, seem to mad that others like it. Some samples:

"I think people who are giving it high praise believe that's just what their supposed to do but the fact is it's just a dumpster fire of a movie."

" I RARELY write movie reviews but had to inform people of the facts on this one."

"The positive reviews are from movie snobs who think they are smarter than everyone else and recognize brilliance in pure garbage."

You get the point. It's almost like we're all supposed to like all the same things now. (In fairness, there were plenty of other reviewers who didn't like it, but said they're glad others enjoyed it.

I'm not a movie snob. I'm not a film executive and I have nothing to do with the film except I paid 6 bucks to see it last Tuesday. This is a very surreal satire. It won't be to everyone's liking, but it seems to me that we are getting more and more confused about the difference between fact and opinion. It's not a fact that this movie sucks, any more than it's a fact that this movie is great. These are classically opinions.

Me, I like movies that start sort of pseudo-normal and go into bizarre. This is right up my alley. It's a Repo Man for our generation. Genetic engineering, dead end call center jobs, megalomaniacal Bay Area billionaires trying to save the world, race relations and post-postmodern art commentary. It's all painted in a crazy, bigger-than-life science fiction brush. Yeah, it's weird as hell, and maybe ends a little weakly (Monty Python and the Holy Grail, anyone?) but has a method in its madness.

If you don't like absurdist humor, or if you don't like movies that are at least semi-overt political statements (especially if the political statement is opposed to yours. Anti-union, pro-business capitalists with short fuses be warned! You should give it a miss and just read the National Review's Ross Douthat's review. He saved you a lot of time worrying your beautiful mind about it.), and if you don't like a dollop of science fiction every now and then, yeah, you're going to probably hate it.

But your opinion is still not fact. I liked it. That's my OPINION. Get over it.