Boots Riley wants you to wake up and smell the class struggle

I Love Boosters is a feature that channels Boots Riley’s anti-establishment, pro-worker politics into a comedic exploration of class struggle. Riley previously organized for social justice with the Progressive Labor Party and later expressed those beliefs through projects like Sorry to Bother You and I'm a Virgo. The film’s anti-capitalist message connects to Riley’s earlier work, including the 2006 song “I Love Boosters!” by The Coup. While the movie shares tonal and world-building elements with Riley’s other visual projects, Riley aims to avoid a shared universe. Each story follows the same rules, but the film is designed to stand apart by focusing on class struggle rather than workplace wrongdoing.

"Before Boots Riley became the writer / director / musician behind Sorry to Bother You and I'm a Virgo, he was a young community organizer fighting for social justice as part of the Progressive Labor Party. Riley has channeled his anti-establishment, pro-worker politics into every piece of art that he's made. But his belief that our society is long overdue for a revolution is most clearly articulated in his latest feature, I Love Boosters."

"You can hear elements of I Love Boosters' anti-capitalist message sprinkled throughout " I Love Boosters!" - a 2006 song Riley wrote and produced for his hip-hop group, The Coup. The movie also looks and feels like it could be set in the same worlds as Riley's previous visual projects, but when I spoke with him recently, he explained that he isn't trying to build a shared universe. Though "each of these stories is guided by the same rules," Riley wanted to set I Love Boosters apart by making it a comedy that explores the nuances of class struggle."

""There have probably been 10,000 or more workplace comedies or just workplace movies where the manager is an asshole or somebody is doing something wrong," Riley told me. "But few of them really center class strug""

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