Review of Sorry to Bother You (2018) by Eight827 — 14 Jul 2018

Did I see a different movie than nearly every critic out there? Original does not automatically equal good. Social commentary/satire does not automatically make a movie good. It took a very thin premise in the first place, and attempted to stretch it across an entire movie.

The movie sucked. Hard. Flat direction, zero energy, moved scene to scene leaving you going "Ok...", you could hear the awkwardness in the audience as joke after joke fell flat, as scene cut after scene cut fell flat (except for the first 20 minutes which are genuinely not bad) cliche racial humor, extremely on the nose social commentary.

It was just bad, and it's amazing that it's a critical darling. I suggest following the critics who realize this is garbage, because yes, it was bad. Just plodding and beating you over the head. And it's not the surrealism that got me either, that was interesting.

It's the terrible flat direction/editing and cliche writing. The movie is gimmicky and tacky. Even the way the overdubbing of the white voices is recorded comes off like something you'd hear in The Hangover.

In other words, it's poorly done. Even if it's trying to be absurdist, it falls flat. I'm all for its message and what it's trying to say, but this is not even close to the best we can do. It's painfully obvious this is a guy who is not competent at directing.

This is Boots Riley's debut and it shows. Open your eyes guys...it's bad.