*If you thought Boots Riley was going to tone it down after his 2018 cult classic Sorry to Bother You, think again. The filmmaker returned with a vengeance on Thursday night, opening the 2026 SXSW Film Festival with his sophomore feature, I Love Boosters. Judging by the electric reaction at the Paramount Theater, Riley has delivered another wild, surreal, and unapologetically radical satire that cements his place as cinema’s most inventive leftist troublemaker.
Described as an “anti-Devil Wears Prada” with socialist stoner vibes, I Love Boosters follows a crew of professional shoplifters known as the Velvet Gang. Leading the charge is Corvette (a dynamite Keke Palmer), an aspiring designer sleeping on a friend’s couch in a converted fast-food joint—complete with a light-up menu next to her kitchen shower. Alongside her best friends Sade (Naomi Ackie) and Mariah (Taylour Paige), the gang funds their existence by “boosting” high-end fashion from Metro Designs, the luxury empire run by the ruthless “girlboss” designer Christie Smith (Demi Moore, channeling icy brilliance with a blonde bob).
Their mission? Steal from the rich and sell to the working class out of van trunks, a practice they proudly brand as “Fashion. Forward. Philanthropy.”
From Grounded Heists to Teleporting Chaos
True to Riley’s form, the film starts grounded in Oakland grit before spiraling into glorious absurdity. The plot accelerates when Jianhu (Poppy Liu), a teleporting factory worker from China, joins the crew. Armed with a “metal doughnut” device that can “deconstruct” or “situationally accelerate” reality, she highlights the global exploitation behind Christie’s fashion line—specifically the lung disease affecting workers sandblasting jeans.
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What follows is a riot of monthly monochromatic heists, “white girl” distraction tactics, and worker solidarity movements. The cast is a who’s who of character actors firing on all cylinders: Will Poulter plays a store manager who uses techno music to drown out his exploitative rants, Eiza González is a “vaping weed brainiac” retail worker, and Eric André has a cameo involving a monster truck that defies description.
The Soul-Sucking Scene and Other Visual Insanity
The SXSW Q&A was almost as chaotic as the film. LaKeith Stanfield, reuniting with Riley after Sorry to Bother You, stole the show by dropping his mic and announcing, “I’m just sucking souls out of vaginas!” before pretending to walk offstage. His character—a demonic figure in a body-horror, levitating cunnilingus scene—is just one of the film’s many shockingly surreal highlights.
Riley fills the screen with his signature visual metaphors: a giant ball of receipts and eviction notices threatens to crush our heroes; stop-motion skinless corporate goons give chase; and Don Cheadle appears in prosthetics as a pyramid-scheme guru hosting self-help seminars in discount furniture stores. Through it all, news chyrons featuring Jason Ritter flash conspiracy-tinged headlines, keeping the audience in a state of delighted confusion.
More Than Just a Good Time
Despite the cartoonish violence and hyperpop aesthetics, Riley’s message is deadly serious. Speaking to the audience in Austin, he emphasized that while the film is “silly,” it’s also “very important right now” as a call to fight fascism and economic injustice. Keke Palmer, who also served as an executive producer, noted that the film’s layers reveal themselves upon re-watching. “Whether you’re Latin, Black or Asian American, we’re dealing with some crazy struggles. We need to stop fighting our own independent fights,” she said, referencing the film’s themes of solidarity.
A Bay Area Homecoming and Theatrical Release
Distributed by Neon, I Love Boosters is set for a wide release on May 22, 2026. Riley has announced plans for a college tour to engage younger audiences, as well as a special Bay Area homecoming screening at Oakland’s historic Grand Lake Theatre.
If you’re yearning for a film that combines the heist fun of Set It Off with the reality-bending ambition of Everything Everywhere All at Once, mark your calendars. I Love Boosters is peak Riley: messy, ambitious, joyful, and a necessary molotov cocktail of hope in tough times.
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