Boots Riley’s Trojan Horseplay
Namwalli Serpell writes: ‘Acting white is the premise of Boots Riley’s raucous new film, “Sorry to Bother You.” And no one knows better than black people that acting white—putting on the trappings of privilege, speaking as if you belong, as if you deserve to take whatever you want—has always yielded dividends in America. How do you think we got the Huxtables? And acting white is the premise of Riley’s raucous new film. What tumbles forth from this premise is a wild, campy romp. Indeed, smuggled inside Riley’s rollicking mashup of surrealism and sci-fi is a cutting critique of race and class.’
