‘Sorry to Bother You’ Highlights the Dark, Absurd Side of Code Switching

Yo, there’s no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + “ass” here* to see Sorry to Bother You, like now. You have to see it in order to know what you’re really messing with. Written and directed by Boots Riley, this film tackles so much from politics and economics to hood shit and code-switching. Sorry to Bother You shows capitalism’s ambitions at it’s most absurd yet, somehow, not far-fetched. This has all the makings of a cult classic. This movie is the 2018 Office Space for POC that we’ve been waiting for. The film revolves around Cassius “Cash” Green (Lakeith Stanfield) needing a job. My man needs a job superbad. He’s broke as the third circle of hell, my man living out of his uncle Sergio Green’s (Terry Crews) garage (who is also struggling), and like every everyman/everywoman, he wants more for himself out of life and more for his artist girlfriend Detroit (Tessa “De Gawd” Thompson). Cassius does the most for his resume just to get his foot in the door for a telemarketing job set up by his friend Salvador (Jermain Fowler). The telemarketing job is commission based and if you’re good enough, you could get called up to become a power caller. Power Caller feels like a mythical position as they have their own elevator and all that’s known is that they make way more bang for way more buck.

After failing to make sales, it’s the advice of Langston (Danny Glover) for Cassius to use his “white voice” in order to get ahead and hold onto the c…