During one of the Friday Film events, I had the pleasure of watching Sorry to Bother You (2018). The film by Boots Riley followed Cassius “Cash” Green, a man living with his girlfriend Detroit in his uncle Sergio’s garage and simply trying to survive in the capitalist United States of the 21st century. I enjoyed the film mostly because of its fascinating characters — I sympathized with Cash’s sentiments in the first scene of the film that he wanted to do something meaningful with his life, and I enjoyed watching Detroit create her art (and seeing what kind of wild earrings she would wear) throughout the film. In addition to the characters, however, I also believe that the film provided a powerful message: it can be too easy to become fixated on the idea of being wealthy. Even if one has good intentions at the outset as Cash did (i.e. earning enough money to pay off his uncle Sergio’s house and to provide more material comforts for himself and Detroit), one can easily go beyond doing good for oneself and others and become greedy, as Cash did by crossing the picket line at Regalview. The film showed that greed can backfire spectacularly, from when Cash got hit with a soda can and became a meme online, to when Detroit left him, to when he was transformed into a half-horse, half-human “equisapien” by Steve Lift, the CEO of WorryFree. Lift wanted to use Cash as a false revolutionary figure to suppress the other equisapiens, but I was happy to see that Cash went back to his friends at the end of the film, declining the offer and losing his job, even though it paid well. I also appreciated, despite its bizarreness, the resolution that occurred at the end of the film — after inadvertently becoming an equisapien, Cash and many of the other equisapiens stormed Lift’s house (presumably to take revenge on him and/or force him to turn them back into humans).

I feel that this film conveyed many messages beyond the one that I described, but I think that its anti-greed message — although incredibly hyperbolic– is especially useful at a less extreme level for college students who have chosen or are choosing their major and are pressured into considering stem or business careers, despite having other interests. I think that it will also be useful to keep this anti-greed message in mind long after college, where one might be faced with ethical decisions involving money versus personal values in the workplace.

The movie was incisive, genius, and unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I loved how they used elements of fantasy and magical realism to satirize our society. I think I read an article two years ago that called it heavy-handed, which dissuaded me from watching it then. That was a terrible decision. The movie doesn’t try to be subliminal. The main character is Cassius Green, for “cash is green.” It just about tells you what it’s trying to say. It’s not about you feeling special for figuring out the puzzle.

One part that especially resonated was when Cash crossed the picket line, telling his friend that he supported his cause, but it had nothing to do with him after his promotion. I could see myself in that. I support people fighting for their rights from afar, but as someone with little to fight for, I don’t engage in their struggle. I’m content to do my part and uphold the status quo.

The movie also takes a dig at reality TV shows that basically involve humiliating poor people for prizes. I thought this was really important. I used to watch a lot of Ellen, and I think about how often she’d given someone in need $10k, and film their emotional response, their tears for ten minutes. She’s helping, but it feels predatory. We implicitly want them to play our game for the money, we want them to perform, to jump up and down, so we can feel good and think about occasional generosity and not why this person should be in such a desperate state to begin with. I guess.

I recently watched the movie Sorry to Bother You, which I found to be a thought provoking, occasionally funny, and even (at points) scary film. For me, the main thrust of the film was its depiction of how far an individual will (or even has to) go to “get ahead” in the world, particularly in an economic sense. Its main character, an everyman with a bleak economic future and impending eviction, is initially forced to work at a call center to catch up on rent and even just to ensure his survival and his girlfriend’s for another day, just like everyone else in the world is trying to do. Afterwards, he believes he can “make it” even further up the ladder, to provide more for himself and his loved ones (as anyone would), and continues to work his hardest, taking advantage of his “talent” to mask his identity and use a “white voice” to make more sales. In the end, he ends up losing his loved ones, and even his own sense of his identity in this pursuit, but he doesn’t fully realize it until he encounters people who have had far more forcibly taken from them, their humanity. He himself is offered the chance to earn an obscene sum, but only at that same cost. In my understanding of this film, this all serves as a warning that, while committing to work is a good think in that it allows one to provide for oneself and family, to too fully commit to it will come at the cost of those very things and, possibly, one’s humanity itself.

Last week I was able to watch Sorry to Bother You. Though extrememly weirded out by it at first, after reflection I saw that this movie highlighted the fact that problems in the workplace aren’t explicitly seen today. This movie showed how corporates and rich bosses used those that worked under them. This wasn’t done by forced labor, but rather by taking advantage of necessity and then faking generosity. Furthermore, they used Cash against his own people showing how easy it is to be manipulated and leave your own when a bunch of fancy things and money is thrown your way. This movie showcased the amount of power that can be used against workers when they are not united and also showed the amount of power workers can have when they decide enough is enough. The movie sends a powerful message, although it was a bit hard to understand for me at first, I think it was a creative way to tackle this message through film.

I had never heard of this movie before the Rose Scholars event, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Even with no real expectations, this movie managed to surprise me. I thought it did a good job illustrating the issue of corporate greed and large companies taking things too far at the expense of its workers. I thought it showed an interesting perspective of the workers rising up against their awful bosses and trying to improve their lives. It also touched on some racial issues in the form of the “white voice” that the main character used to be successful. I think these are important social commentaries that deserve be explored through film and media.

While this film does show important social issue, my main takeaway was that it was weird. It had some comic relief, although the humor wasn’t my style. However, the movie took a really strange turn towards the end, and I was distracted from the message. The CGI “equisapiens” were very disturbing, and I felt there were other, more subtle ways to show corporate greed. Overall, I did not really enjoy the movie, but it was certainly memorable. In that way, I think it was a success, but I’ve seen movies that deal with similar issues in better ways. It was interesting, but I probably won’t watch it again.

The film, Sorry to Bother You, portrayed a group within a socioeconomic class, unionizing, and striking very well until the end where fiction and imagination played a bigger role and the main focus of the production. I think the movie did a good job portraying a class relevant to society today where people are struggling to find jobs, pay off overdue rents, and supporting their families.  Also, it was interesting to see how some of the ideas that I learned in my Labor Relations class being present in the movie. For example, the workers unionizing and striking outside their office, strikebreakers or scabs being present who work during strikes made the film realistic and educational. However, the film went out of proportions at the end when the vision of the CEO was revealed. I guess the screenwriter wanted to add humor and fiction to the film to keep the audience engaged but towards the end, I kind of lost my focus and was confused about how everything was unfolding. All in all, it was a film that I can casually watch and enjoy with others without thinking too deeply about it.

When I saw that this week’s Friday Film was Sorry To Bother You, I was excited because I’d actually wanted to watch the film for a while. While staying over at her apartment, one of my older sisters mentioned that it was a unique and interesting film that provided valuable commentary on issues that pervade modern society. Since then I had wanted to watch it, but I hadn’t been able to find the time. From what I had heard about the film, it definitely wasn’t what I expected, but I still found it engaging and well-done. I loved the color schemes and cinematography, and the cast was quite good. The premise was very interesting, although seeing the parallels between a seemingly exaggerated storyline and current (or even past) events was a little disconcerting. I mainly watch comedic TV shows and movies, so I was happy that there was some comic relief, and overall I enjoyed the movie. It got pretty weird towards the end, but the creators definitely kept it interesting. While satirical and absurdist, it made great critiques on modern capitalism and its downfalls and racial issues, which apply heavily to the US.  I am interested in seeing what Boots Riley, the director, creates next in the future.

The movie, Sorry to Bother You was very interesting in portraying a world where people have to do things in which they would otherwise not have done in order to get a step up the ladder.

The main character- Cassius is forced to impersonate a white person, and forgo his true identity in order to make sales. Cassius finds himself in a place where he has to choose between his friends or ‘his future’ or what I saw, was a future that others wanted for him.  In my opinion, I felt that this movie was an indirect representation of the real world- a world were people change their identity, their morals, and their  beliefs in order to fit in with a ‘higher’ crowd or even to move up the social ladder.

Lessons one can learn from this movie are to have your own goals and aspirations so no one can make something seem more pleasing to you and lure you wayward. also, being true to yourself and always knowing your identity ideologies.

CM

In the movie “Sorry to Bother You,” the main character Cassius is a telemarketer. He receives an advice from his co-worker that in order to maximize profits, he needs to take on a white voice, in which he mimics a prosperous white person. It is shocking and surprising that someone came up with the idea that sounding white would be effective in making sales, and even more so in that the white voice tactic works. This led me to reconsider and question if our society today causes us to have some insecurities and feelings of inferiority based on race and ethnicity. If so, how can we solve these issues? Historically, certain ethnic groups have faced discrimination and racial prejudice; in today’s word, on the other had, we can argue that other races are being reversely discriminated via policies (such as affirmative action) created to compensate for the historical discriminations. I feel like we should all cooperate and work to create a sense of unity among people of different racial, ethical and cultural backgrounds so that no one feels excluded in the cultural melting pot that we live in.

“If you get shown a problem, but have no idea how to control it, then you just decide to get used to the problem.” – Squeeze (Sorry to Bother You)

Sorry to Bother You is a brilliant satire that covers issues ranging from racial profiling, social gentrification, to corporate corruption. The main character Cassius ‘Cash’ Green is introduced as a regular man of his time, struggling to keep up with the unstoppable changes of constantly growing corporate America. Cash and his girlfriend, passionate eccentric artist Detroit, live day by day, paycheck to paycheck, trying to maintain a balance between their hopeful dreams and undeniable reality. They represent not only the issues of the lower middle class in the country but also the problems for today’s youth.

The movie portrays the injustices of our current economy, where only the top 1% have access to a comfortable life and freedom. As Cash goes up on the ranks on his company, he begins to create a name for himself. His growing reputation as a “Power Caller” emerges from his ability to project a “white voice” that is proven to be the key to success for minority telemarketers. The attribute of the “white voice” is highly emphasized through a very obvious dub over the actor’s own voice, highlighting the evident racist roots on this country’s definition of success. Social commentaries on racism are recurrent throughout the film, with the second most clear example being the forced rap scene at the WorryFree party scene. The assumption of Cash’s knowledge of the music genre followed by his own repetition of derogatory lyrics, criticize not only today’s music industry but society’s perception of it.

WorryFree, the biggest villain of the film, is a multi-millionaire company that promises its workers guaranteed food and housing for their labor, feeding off unemployment, homelessness, and financially desperate families. Cassius’s collaboration with this company through his telemarketing missions creates the biggest question for the main character: is it morally acceptable to focus on one’s own success despite the undeniable corruption behind it? His friends and girlfriend try to show him the true injustice behind his actions and it takes a gruesome encounter with WorryFree’s scientific “project” for him to realize the ridiculousness of the situation.

After desperate attempts to fix his previous mistakes, a hopeless Cash has to go through the process of going viral and appearing in the country’s most popular (and disturbingly violent) television show for him to expose the company’s dark secrets. With the recovery of the undying support of his friends and an unexpected transformation, Cash succeeded in his mission of stopping WorryFree’s brutality.

All it took was for him not to stick to the script for once.

Sorry to Bother You is a comedic and satirical film that explores various topics such as capitalism, corporate power, racism, friendship, and ethics. The beginning of the film introduces the protagonist, Cassius “Cash” Green, and his girlfriend, Detroit. Detroit has a job as an artist, and Cash lands a job as a telemarketer at Regal View. Their house needs to be repaired, Cash owes his uncle rent money, and his uncle also owes money. Clearly not financially well-off, Cash works hard to pay off his debts; however, he learns that he must use his “white-voice” to make sales. As Cash perfects his telemarketer spiel and his white-voice, he starts to rise up the ranks and eventually gets promoted to Power Caller, a position of utmost prestige in the company. His attire, interactions with friends, and even his housing, changes. Cash’s clothes transition from bland office wear to polished suits, there is a clear distance between him and his friends, and his new housing is modern, neat, white. Cash’s obviously dubbed white voice, paired with his visual and behavioral changes, suggest that the pursuit of monetary success often requires changing oneself to fit society’s standards and expectations, even at the expense of one’s friendships and morals. This standard of success is embodied by Steve Lift, CEO of the Worry Free, who, in order to make more money, resorts to forcibly turning humans into half horse half human creatures, equisapiens. This bizarre and quite unrealistic turn in the movie clearly shows that people can go to great lengths for money, despite the possible repercussions. Moreover, the strange acceptance of the equisapien and labeling as a scientific achievement by the general public indicates that the powerful and influential can often commit morally corrupt acts in order to satisfy their own personal aims, often at the expense of others. 

The film Sorry to Bother You flashes the Regal View slogan “Stick to the Script” in the background of scenes while simultaneously veering sharply away from a typical movie script. The quirkiness and craziness of Sorry to Bother You draws attention to societal issues while at the same time entertaining the audience with its uniqueness and gradual divergence from a seemingly tame social commentary to disconcerting sci-fi. 

In today’s complicated society, humans are tempted to change themselves, or others, to achieve certain goals or meet social expectations. Sorry to Bother You (2018) implicitly explores this theme with a light-hearted touch of a comedy.

The main character, Cassius “Cash” Green, first changes himself when he is taught by a colleague that using a “white voice” would make his telemarketing much more effective. He starts using the fake voice to sound white to customers and very quickly makes his first success. This change of white voice brings him the vocal appeal of a professional white telemarketer and meets the telemarketing social expectations. Although this first change is mainly due to curiosity, little does he know that this change will bring more changes and get him addicted to changing like a first snort of cocaine.

He gets promoted to a Power Caller. It seems like everything is going well, but a change even bigger than the first one is taking place deep inside his heart. Required to wear a suit and use the white voice at all times during work, his personality and morals are changing. But changes do not always bring positive outcomes. Cannot resist the temptation of money and his richer-than-ever material life, he abandons his picketing friend and even lets the relationship with his girlfriend, Detroit, deteriorates. He begins to unconsciously talk in the white voice at home, to which Detroit strongly resists, and loses his temper with her. Feeling hopeless, Detroit angrily expresses that she does not like the change at all — she loves the old him. The change of personality and morals builds upon changes as small as individual behaviors, but as a whole is a much bigger deal. This reminds me of a song by Alec Benjamin called If I Killed Someone For You. “Would you love me more | If I killed someone for you?” Just as the song expresses, in some sense, changing your heart is like killing the old you. We might hope “that makes you (the one we change for) happy” But similar to killing a person, if we change ourselves so drastically, “there’s just no turning back.”

Approaching the end of the film, the biggest change is uncovered. The company WorryFree is changing humans to half-horses, referred to as “equisapiens,” to increase productivity. This change is a serious threat to human civilization and a fundamental betrayal to healthy morals. Here Cassius Green finally makes the right choice of refusing the astronomical sum of money and reporting the issue before he is changed into an equisapien himself. The movie comes to an end with him charging into the CEO’s residence accompanied by his peer equisapiens. The ending is open and a little unexpected, leaving the audience with endless imaginations…

This week, as part of Frida Films I watched Sorry to Bother You. This was likely one of the most bizzare films I have seen for a long time, with what seems like a relatively normal plot-line twisting and turning out of control in the latter half of the film. Of the many themes in this film, the theme of race, and the additional obstacles that African-Americans face in the workforce stood out to me the most. Specifically, in the film Cassius is a black man working as a telemarketer that sells to predominantly white clients, and at first Cassius was barely making any sales being himself over the phone. However, when he put on his “white voice” he suddenly became one of the companies best-selling employees. This shows that Cassius had to hide his blackness and conform to societies white standards in order to be successful in the workforce. As the film went on, Cassius even started using his “white voice” at social gatherings in an effort to be more accepted by his white colleagues. Further, Cassius’ white higher-ups at the Power Caller party only valued his “black side” when it benefited them, such as asking him to entertain them with “gangster stories” or his ability to rap. This is an example of white people only being interested in particular aspects (often stereotypical ones) of another races culture when it suits them (ie for their own entertainment) and disregarding them when it does not. As a white male I certainly do not have much experience on this issue, but for me this film clearly highlighted how our society attempts to white-wash other cultures, and even though the film takes place in an alternate-version of America, there are many similarities between their society and our own.