The beginning is very like 'The Wolf of Wall Street', this film is also all about capitalism and greed. Our hero, Cassius is struggling to make end meet, he applies to be a telemarketer and quickly promoted to a 'Power Caller'
He discovers that senior management are exploiting its employees to generate more profit (you'll see how towards the end). The humour at the beginning turns into dark social commentary with lots of symbolism.
I'm always apprehensive when a poster says 'the best film of the year by far' Well ... it's not the 'best', but very good and definitely different.
Sorry to Bother You
2018
Action / Comedy / Drama / Fantasy / Sci-Fi
Sorry to Bother You
2018
Action / Comedy / Drama / Fantasy / Sci-Fi
Plot summary
In an alternate version of Oakland, Cassius Green gets a telemarketing job and finds the commission paid job a dispiriting struggle as a black man selling to predominately white people over the phone. That changes when a veteran advises him to use his "white voice," and the attitude behind it to make himself more appealing to customers. With a bizarrely high-pitched accent, Cassius becomes a success even as his colleagues form a union to improve their miserable jobs. Regardless, Cassius finds himself promoted a "Power Caller" selling the most morally abhorrent but lucrative products and services as his connection to his girlfriend and colleagues fades away. However, Cassius' conscience arises anew as he finds himself in the midst of his boss' bizarre world of condescending bigoted decadence and his sinister plans to create the perfect subservient work force with Cassius' help.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
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Sorry to Bother You - Dark Social Commentary.
Don't sweat it
Every so often a movie comes around, then really gets you to go "woah". And this is one of those movies. I have no idea how the filmmaker came up with all the things he shows us here. And it is tough to describe overall, because this is a movie that takes on the establishment and society and our view on class system and also has something to say about those calls you get, where a stranger tries to sell you something.
It's also about race (the "rap" is almost too cringe-worthy and should make you equal parts uncomfortable while kind of make you smile too) and other things. And it does have a fantastic cast to support all the strange thngs that are depicted in the movie. I can't praise the movie enough for being different. This really delivers on its premise and what else could you ask for? It may not touch any of your senses, it may not be to your liking, but it is masterfully crafted (flaws included)
Complicity And Victimhood
Lakeith Stanfield really needs a job. He gets one as a telemarketer. What is he selling? It doesn't matter; just stick to the script. It's Danny Glover who explains how to make the sales: use his white voice. By that, he means his I-don't-really-need-this-I-was-just-on-the-way-to-my-yacht voice, and soon he's racking up the sales and promoted to the next floor, where they make the real money, just as a strike breaks out to organize the workers.
It's up there that he discovers what he's selling up there: the new slavery, where people live, eat, sleep and work in a small space, making whatever Armie Hammer can get a contract to manufacture for a half the price that Asian laborers will accept. But Hammer wants him for his ability to sell something even worse...
It's an interesting personal story. Suppose you go through life, not being good at anything, and suddenly you find something you are very good at; indeed, you're the best there is. However, it's being used for a wrong purpose? Stanfield plays his character appropriately as a nebbish, some one who walks hunched over and has nothing to say, even though his beautiful girlfriend, a crazy performance artist, tells him he's very interesting that way -- probably, I thought, because she can can dominate him so totally. So that part of it is a straw man argument.
The second question: "How can this movie show this sort of stuff, while when Spike Lee does it, everyone screams?" I've thought about it and have concluded that it's because Lee makes Black people complicit in their own debasement in movies like CHI-RAq and BAMBOOZLED and yes, even in DO THE RIGHT THING, where it's Spike Lee himself who sets off the riot over a pair of shoes. In this movie, poor people are oppressed through no fault of their own, even though Stanfield rises through ability and his girlfriend is happy to accept the trapping of wealth that his success brings; she also looks forward to selling her art about Africa to rich White people. The telemarketers want a living wage, when they have been offered a commission on sales; and so forth.
I doubt very much that most of the audience will see this other side of the coin. Nor are they supposed to. All they will see is rich stereotype Armie Hammer snorting coke and asking Stanfield to rap.