New heist movie unlike any before can be watched right now

'A movie that's a pleasure to watch in the moment, but makes you think long afterwards.'

The story follows Corvette (Keke Palmer), an aspiring fashion designer in Oakland, California. She's part of the 'Velvet Gang', a group of women (also including Naomi Ackie and Taylour Paige) who routinely shoplift from the Metro Designers fashion chain run by mogul Christie Smith (Demi Moore). This is so they can sell the clothes at a discount.

One day, Corvette has an encounter with Christie, during which the mogul compliments Corvette's style. Not long after this, however, Metro Designers puts out a new item identical to what the lead character was wearing when she met the CEO.

Seeking revenge, Corvette and the Velvet Gang get jobs at a Metro Designers store, planning to steal its inventory. Through this, they cross paths with Violeta (Eiza González), a goth sales assistant fighting for better working conditions, and Jianhu (Poppy Liu), a factory worker from China with her bone to pick with Christie.

I Love Boosters takes the framework of the always entertaining underdog heist story, but filters it through Riley's trademark mix of humour, surreality and political commentary.

There are sci-fi gadgets inspired by Marxist philosophy, soul-sucking demons, and other fantastical elements which we will not spoil. Your mileage may vary on some of these story inclusions (Remember the horse-human hybrids in Sorry to Bother You? I Love Boosters ups the weirdness by five).

That said, each of these fantastical elements shows viewers something they have never seen onscreen before, which is an appeal in itself. This is as Riley deploys absurdist humour to draw attention to how absurd living under capitalism often is.

The entire cast are very funny, while still oozing cool. The clothes and production design are worth the price of admission alone, thanks to their tactile textures and eye-popping colours. The soundtrack by Tune-Yards (though layered on thick) worms its way into your head.

It all adds up to a movie that's a pleasure to watch in the moment, but makes you think long afterwards.

JOE's I Love Boosters Interviews

JOE had the pleasure of speaking to writer-director Boots Riley and cast members Eiza González, Naomi Ackie, and Poppy Liu about I Love Boosters.

The movie came out in the United States last May but is only landing in Irish and UK cinemas now. Riley told us he is fascinated to see how international audiences react to the film.

The writer-director said: "I was wondering how it would play internationally because… what I always say is the more personal and specific you get, the more universal a story is. And unfortunately, capitalism is a worldwide economic system.

"So, we're all trying to figure out how we can change that, and I think people are going to connect to it all over the place.

"I'm really interested. Too bad I'm not gonna be in Dublin, but I've watched this movie with 50 different audiences, maybe more, and sat through the whole thing. It's just a joy to hear people just laughing, chortling, snorting, and gasping through the whole thing."

Naomi Ackie told JOE one of the reasons she joined I Love Boosters was because of its global themes, explaining: "I love the idea of the micro to the macro in this film, that it was like centred around this group of women, but then expanded to the global community.

"It felt like a film that was entertaining but also had a really strong message. As much as I love films that are entertaining, I just love being a part of films where people can pull away deeper meanings from them."

Riley tells JOE that some of I Love Boosters' eye-catching, unique style is borne out of necessity, particularly when the writer-director's ambitions came up against budgetary and time pressures.

"What happens is this stuff costs money. This stuff costs, you know? So eventually, people are like: 'You've got to cut a lot of that out. How are we gonna afford that?' And that ends up affecting the style because I'm not cutting anything out. We're going to change our approach to how we film this.

"So for instance, there's a montage in there, once they find a device. Originally that was going to be in all of these locations… and it was like: 'Boots, that probably would take at least a couple of days and we've got three hours to do it.'

"I was like: 'OK, we're going to do one-wall things. It's going to be like, you know, Peter Greenaway and all that kind of stuff, and we're looking for different ways to make things happen,' you know?'"

When JOE compliments how tactile this movie feels, he replies: The thing is that, the practical stuff, I want us to see the different textures and feel like we know what that feels like, especially with the trend of movies over the last 20 years being so CGI and smoothed out.

"Maybe I wouldn't be against that if that was the unusual thing, but because it's the way all movies look, and even when we're seeing those things, we're mitigating our ideas of reality.

"With this, it's not that it looks more real. It does, in some ways, look more real, but the ways that it doesn't look real are different from the ways that we're normally used to seeing things.

"So, yeah, we wanted to use miniatures, stop motion, all of these things just so it looks like something you could touch."

Eiza González and Poppy Liu are full of praise for the movie's costume and production design, saying they are campaigning for the artists behind it to be recognised during awards season.

"I mean, it's so rare. We don't get practicality that often," González explained. "I actually randomly was watching last night on TV Batman and Robin and Batman Forever, and I was like: 'This is epic. All these real sets and real artistic design, hundreds of people that put in the work and did that.'

"So to that point, like Christopher Glass, the people that did all the production design of this movie, it's unheard of. We don't get these movies anymore. We're all in a volume or a green screen... We are all campaigning because this type of artistry is a dying art in the craziest way."

Liu added: "In an era of AI takeover, I Love Boosters is such an ode and a testament, and I feel like a plea [saying] we need to be making things with our hands. We have to be in community and in conversation with other artists.

"That's Boots' community. When I was in Oakland, he and Gabby, his wife, threw a New Year's Eve party. It was just a house full of artists who were like: 'Oh, I'm third-generation miniatures. My grandfather made miniatures, and that's what I'm into.' One of his best friends just does lettering and fonts. He did the lettering for I Love Boosters, and it's so amazing.

"People who have these niche art forms, that's all craft. This movie is filled with craft, and I feel like it's a loss to be like: 'We can AI generate this on screen.' Well, you're losing so much."

González then summed up: "That's why people need to go see it in the theatres because you have to support it. You have to support the art."

I Love Boosters is in UK and Ireland cinemas now. For more from our Boots Riley interview, click here.