I often say that movies have become too routine and predictable. I certainly can’t say that about I Love Booster, a genre-bending, idea-driven film directed by Boots Riley, a filmmaker who refused to conform to the norm. His previous work was the brilliantly twisted Sorry to Bother You. With a colour palette that would make Dulux jealous, and a large, loaded cast, this examination of the cutthroat world of fashion and the treatment of workers in that world, seen from a satirical eye, is a film that, while truly unique, is bogged down by far too many ideas and a surreal touch that is far from subtle and becomes far too distracting for its own good.

Corvette is the leader of a group of boosters, a team that shoplifts high-end fashion, picking on one company run by the power-hungry Christine Smith. When it’s discovered that the workers in a factory in China have their clothes transported via a portal, the Boosters decide to steal the device and use it to ruin Christie’s empire.

Boots Riley is a filmmaker who wants to take on the capitalists who are ruining the world. After pointing his finger at corporate greed and how a simple telesalesman finds a unique way to make money, he targets fashion and the exploitation of those who are paid nothing yet make millions for the so-called fashion designers (there may be similarities between Smith and certain designers out there). Yet while his ideas have a definite positive approach, the trouble with I Love Boosters is excess. This is a very wacky, out-there film that doesn’t know where to stop.

On the plus side, the film looks impressive. An array of colours, from the clothes that the Boosters use as “disguises” to the clothing stores they are stealing from, which change colour all the time, so we get a wash of yellow or green from their clothes, the walls, even the colour of the manager’s hair. For the first half of the film, it works brilliantly, and you are sold on the idea that destroying high-end fashion designers means stealing and selling at a much lower, affordable price.

Yet halfway through, something happens that I couldn’t even explain here, mainly because of the content, plus I don’t want to include spoilers, which completely lost me. Then, once we get the portal, it keeps layering idea after idea. Hence, you end up with so many singularly workable thoughts turned into a mess, all fighting each other for screen space, and by the time the final credits start running, you really don’t care. Even the post-credit sequence leaves you scratching your head.

Riley is obviously a talented director who wants to make films about something, but he doesn’t know when to hit the brakes. This could have been a scathing attack on an industry that has always exploited its workers, from the ones who make the items to those who sell them, and it seems that it’s the way he wants the film to go. Instead, he keeps coming up with another mind-bending idea that, in the end, loses sight of the initial subject he is attacking.

I do need to give credit to the cast for their effort. All are totally committed and never let the energy drop. Keke Palmer, so good in Nope, gives a full-blooded performance as Corvette, while Demi Moore, who is having a resurgence after The Substance, is having a fabulous time as Christine. Will Poulter gives the funniest performance as the shop manager, Graysomn, with his changing hair colour.

I Love Boosters is certainly a unique film, not only in look but in content. I wish I liked it more, but it is definitely a case of sometimes less is more. This could have been this year’s Everything Everywhere All at Once. Instead, it makes me want to return to Sorry to Bother You, which I liked much more.

2 out of 5

Director: Boots Riley

Starring: Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, LaKeith Stanford, Demi Moore, Don Cheadle, Eiza Gonzalez, Will Poulter, Poppy Liu, Viggo Mortensen

Written by: Boots Riley

Running Time: 113 mins

Cert: 18

Release date: 30th October 2026