Put “Idiocracy,” “Altered States,” “Dear White People” and the collected works of George Clinton into a blender and you might approach the tone of “Sorry To Bother You,” a wildly inventive if wobbly satire from director-musician Boots Riley.
Lakeith Stanfield (“Get Out”) stars as Cassius, a humble telemarketer in Oakland, Calif., who begins to rise in the ranks when he takes a suggestion of his cubiclemate (Danny Glover) to use his “white voice” — specifically, the voice of comedian David Cross, bluntly dubbed over Stanfield’s.
Soon, Cassius is working in the upper echelons of the business, where the golden corporate elevator requires a 30-digit code and his boss Mr. Blank (Omari Hardwick) — whose name is blanked out every time it’s uttered — grooms him for greatness amid a team of white executives.
Tessa Thompson (“Thor: Ragnarok”) plays Detroit, Cassius’ performance-artist girlfriend, who twirls a business sign on street corners for work and wears ginormous statement earrings that literally make incendiary statements: “Tell homeland security” dangles off one ear, “We are the bomb” off the other. Her gallery exhibition involves giving a near-naked recitation from ’80s martial-arts cult film “The Last Dragon” and urging her audience to pelt her with sheep-blood-filled balloons.
Add to that frequent cutaways to America’s most popular game show, “I Got the S - - t Kicked Out of Me,” Armie Hammer as a cultish CEO presiding over some sketchy DNA meddling, a planned community called WorryFree that amounts to slave labor and a roiling telemarketer revolt led by a guy named Squeeze (Steven Yeun) and you’ve got some sprawling, ambitious racial and cultural satire on your hands.
Some of it works, some of it leaves you scratching your head. But director Boots Riley is one to watch. He’s got so much to say that sometimes he ends up tripping over his words. Nevertheless, “Sorry To Bother You” is a trip.