“I Love Boosters”: Resistance is En Vogue
SPOILERS FOR I Love Boosters AHEAD
In a nearly packed auditorium at the Oriental Theater in Milwaukee, our audience became immersed into a world not too different from our own (albeit much more colorful) while watching Boots Riley’s latest film, I Love Boosters. But previews alone weren’t enough of a heads-up for what a wacky, shocking, heartfelt ride I Love Boosters would be. While technically classified as a crime comedy and sci-fi thriller, it’s not a film that can be put into any one box. Though it may seem, on it’s surface, immediately and overtly bizarre thanks to sideways buildings, teleportation portals, and a demon (and not just any demon, heart-throb Lakeith Stanfield and star of Boots Riley’s previous film Sorry to Bother You plays the shocking comic relief), at it’s heart it’s a film that demands collective action for workers’ rights, urges reform of a corrupt capitalistic system, and somehow remains ridiculously fun to watch.
Thumbnail for the trailer to I Love Boosters (2026, Dir. Boots Riley).
I Love Boosters follows a group of fashion boosters (resellers who steal to build their inventory) called the Velvet Gang, made up of Corvette (Keke Palmer), Sade (Naomi Ackie), and Mariah (Taylour Paige). As the actions of the boosters begin to catch up with them, the crew decides to get jobs at the very designer stores they steal from. Upon being hired, the crew finds that they have similar grievances to the underpaid, overworked staff there (Eiza González). But their grand scheme to steal everything from the store gets interrupted by a worker from the Chinese sweatshop that makes the clothes (Poppy Liu) as she attempts to avenge what the poor working conditions have done to her family. As they cross paths they learn they must join forces to secure their rights and take down the establishment, led by Christine (Demi Moore), a ridiculous billionaire who steals designs, exploits workers, and calls herself an artist for it.
Elle Magazine referred to I Love Boosters as “This Season’s Most Daring Fashion Film” the same month that The Devil Wears Prada 2, a much higher budget, much more mainstream film, hit theaters – a daring statement in itself but one that I would say has proven itself true. While most fashion movies dare to dream big with bigger costumes, more jewels, higher heels, I Love Boosters does what fashion movies haven't yet dared to do: recognizing the art of fashion while also shining a light on the industry’s end-to-end exploitation and greed.
Anyone who came into the theater previously aware of the film’s director and writer Boots Riley should have known he’s not someone interested in being mainstream, and it’s been clear since his mind-warping 2018 film Sorry To Bother You. Similar to Sorry To Bother You, I Love Boosters touts a first half grounded in reality, abruptly shattered by a distinct moment halfway through that unravels everything into full-on madness. While the scene caused a few walk-outs in theaters across the country, it really was a litmus test of open mindedness, and a reasonable one, at that, considering the mind-warping content to follow.
As fantasy springs out of reality and the storyline progresses, the film remains firmly rooted in the present thanks to news clips that bring in current events with absurd quotes from ‘concerned citizens’ such as “I don’t want rent control, what if I want to pay higher rent?”, that I felt like I’d heard and rolled my eyes at before.
It’s clear that Boots Riley is a director with a singular vision and a finger on the pulse—the audience in my theater sounded like a laugh track at times, so many of the jokes hitting perfectly because they were so instantly relatable or else recognizable within the greater cultural zeitgeist. Riley, with his towering hats and his big ideas is often called ‘eccentric’ but that implies a whimsical nature while I think it’s more of a full throttle, purposeful creative activism drenched in irony. It’s a good feeling when you can be with a group of people and laugh at your problems while still recognizing they are problems.
Boots Riley mugs the camera. Variety via Getty Images
At its heart, I Love Boosters is a maximalist capitalist critique from Boots Riley himself, while also being as maximalist and capitalist as possible. The irony! There were estimated to be over 600 costumes, creating a film visually scrumptious and never dull thanks to costume designer Shirley Kurata, who also worked on Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert). On top of all the boldly colorful costumes she also managed to sneak in some iconic pop culture references, like a flower dress similar to the haunting end scene in Midsommar. The only place color was notably lacking was in Demi Moore’s villain Christine, which seemed a purposeful choice to dress her in white and black to stand out against the colors, making her a villain of, among many things, expression itself.
While Riley’s singular vision makes his films difficult to compare, I Love Boosters’ critical satire can be most closely grouped with films like Triangle of Sadness (2022) and The Square (2017), with stylized deadpan direction reminiscent of Wes Anderson, and editing like Riley’s self-confessed inspiration: “Looney Toons”. But even then it’s completely its own thing.
From left: Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige and Keke Palmer in Boots Riley’s “I Love Boosters.” (2026, Dir. Boots Riley)
This film was a huge swing to highlight not just one problem but a bucket full of them. This swing in itself is a beautiful metaphor for I Love Boosters’ central theme ultimately, and the film’s point — that each of these problems is not in a silo, intersectionality exists in struggle, and collective action is the only solution. Themes of worker exploitation, corporate greed, and industry plants, all share the same common denominator — a working class struggle against the people on top. Riley demonstrates this perfectly with a Multi-level Marketing Pyramid Scheme director (Don Cheadle) popping up throughout the film. While the business Cheadle’s character runs sounds like a cultish MLM that even protagonist Corvette (Palmer) knows not to get involved with, the MLM mirrors how the world is a pyramid scheme of its own, with the people at the top gaining from the work of the people at the bottom. If that wasn’t clear enough, Riley even goes as far to spell it out by writing out the names of the people at the top (Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Oprah).
The cast was stacked, with notable performances by Palmer, showcasing her fully committed range, Ackie, wide-eyed and understatedly hilarious, Paige with a subdued flighty performance reminiscent of a Karen from Mean Girls, and a Stanfield heartthrob with his signature brooding eyes transformed into a comic relief. Though the entire film was funny enough on its own and shockingly hilarious cameos from Will Poulter and Eric Andre kept the audience in hysterics.
It doesn’t make sense that a movie with a teleportation machine, a demon, and people without skin would be able to leave you with a better sense of how to rebel in your own systems, but somehow, Riley pulls it off with a message everyone can relate to. I Love Boosters emphasizes that we all have the same struggle, yet we hold ourselves back by our contradictions when we could come together and take collective action to inspire real change.
Sure, the film may be absurd, but like all great irony, it leans in, and, really, what’s more absurd than having a billion dollars while your workers suffer and die?
Props to Boots Riley for creating an anti-establishment film within the establishment and making it critical yet somehow completely fun (and props for the Candace Owens stray that I cannot stop laughing about, days after watching). This film won’t be for everyone, but it should be, and I’m certainly looking forward to his next.
