Boots Riley doesn’t really make movies that behave themselves, and “I Love Boosters” doesn’t look interested in starting now.
Neon has released the trailer for “I Love Boosters,” Riley’s long-awaited follow-up to “Sorry to Bother You,” with Keke Palmer leading an ensemble that includes Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, Poppy Liu, Eiza González, LaKeith Stanfield, Will Poulter, Don Cheadle, and Demi Moore. The film opens in theaters on May 22.
The official synopsis centers on a crew of professional shoplifters that sets its sights on a cutthroat fashion maven. Riley’s own framing of the material has been a little more pointed. The film is based on “I Love Boosters!,” a song by his group The Coup, and early festival coverage describes it as an absurdist comedy with political teeth, centered on boosters stealing designer clothes and flipping them through underground channels.
That setup already sounds like pure Riley territory—class warfare, surreal gags, corporate grotesquerie, and characters trying to survive inside systems built to humiliate them. Early reviews out of SXSW suggest the film delivers exactly that.
The film premiered as the opening-night selection at SXSW on March 12 and will also open the Seattle International Film Festival before its May rollout, suggesting Neon clearly sees it as one of its major spring titles.
In the meantime, Riley remains one of the few American filmmakers working comfortably at the intersection of radical politics, absurdist comedy, and pop-art chaos. “I Love Boosters” opens May 22. Watch the trailer below.
