I LOVE BOOSTERS: Shiny New Boots

I LOVE BOOSTERS (4K UHD + Blu-ray)

2026 / 113 min

NEON

Review by Princess Pepper😺

Having now seen both of writer-director Boots Riley’s films (his first being the gloriously bonkers Sorry to Bother You), I can be assured of a few things…

• Sharp satire and cultural commentary.

• An unusual visual aesthetic.

• Narratives that begin conventionally, but grow increasingly bizarre and genre-defying.

• A twist you won’t see coming.

• At some point, an unexpected dive into sci-fi territory.

• And finally, at least one WTF moment that you can’t believe you just saw. More likely two or three.

Riley’s new, criminally underseen film, I Love Boosters, boasts all those traits. It doesn’t quite reach the delirious heights (or depths) of Sorry to Bother You, but is still one of the more conceptually original movies of the year. And for this writer, it proved to be somewhat educational. Until now, I was unfamiliar with the term, “booster.”

For those equally lacking in street smarts, a booster is someone who steals things from stores and resells them, usually at half the retail price. The film’s protagonists are a trio of them, collectively known as The Velvet Gang, whose clothing thefts have become so notorious that they regularly make the news, earning the wrath of famous fashion designer/store chain CEO Christie Smith (Demi Moore). One of the gang, Corvette (Keke Palmer) is a struggling designer herself who actually admires Christie, at least until it’s revealed that the woman stole her most recent design.

Helletubbies.

So of course, a little payback is in order. Not only do the girls start hitting Smith's Metro Designers store chain, they plan on boosting her most recent creation…a suit that allegedly retails for $100,000. But they also have a little competition from Jianhu (Poppy Liu), a disgruntled Metro employee intent on robbing every store until Smith ends slave-labor factory conditions. That’s the nutshell summary of the basic plot, which doesn’t do it justice, but to reveal more would spoil some great, sometimes amusingly shocking twists. I will say the narrative eventually throws in teleportation, a sexually-driven, soul-sucking demon and a batch of skinless antagonists. 

While Riley doesn’t weave the wilder elements into the film as seamlessly this time around, he still puts together a great story and throws in plenty of perceptive satire. Especially amusing is the depiction of trend-driven retail chains as creatively vapid and indifferent to its employees. Both visually and through Will Poulter’s hilarious performance as a store manager, Metro Designers is simply an exaggerated version of any real store where the music’s too loud and employees are needlessly equipped with headsets.

The film also benefits from amusing performances all around, with Poulter, Naomi Ackie and a WTF turn by LaKeith Stanfield being particular standouts. Elsewhere, I Love Boosters is visually arresting and features another strange-but-fitting score by Tune-Yards (who also did Sorry to Bother You). More or less ignored in theaters, this one deserves to find a wider audience at home.

EXTRA KIBBLES

FEATURETTE - The Making of I Love Boosters

INTERVIEWS - Three individual interview segments featuring Boots Riley & LaKeith Stanfield, Keke Palmer & Demi Moore, and the “Velvet Gang.”

AUDIO COMMENTARY - By director Boots Riley

BLOOPER REEL

IMAGE GALLERY

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