“I Love Boosters” has a flaky, what-the-hell-let’s-do-this effrontery. It’s the first movie Boots Riley has written and directed since his debut feature, “Sorry to Bother You,” which made a subversive splash in 2018. And if you’re wondering whether the rapper-producer-filmmaker has toned down his brash satirical style of funk surrealism, have no fear: The new movie is every bit as out there, maybe more so. “I Love Boosters,” which opened SXSW tonight, is a cosmic send-up of fashion consumerism, with a vision that doesn’t always cohere. Yet if anything, it’s a more spirited piece of fun than “Sorry to Bother You” was. It’s an incendiary prank of a movie that begs our indulgence at times yet also invites us to get high on what a playful provocation it is.
In the opening scene, the camera follows Corvette (Keke Palmer) into an Oakland nightclub, where she saunters around looking for prey. She fastens on a handsome stranger and invites him back to her flat around the corner; from the look of things, we think she might be a sex worker. She’s selling something, all right, but it’s not sex, it’s clothes: the racks and racks of outfits she’s got stashed, all of which have been boosted. The dude is outraged — he thought he was there for a good time — but then, just as he’s ready to storm out, he asks if she’s got any shoes in a size 10.
