--- title: "Sorry to Bother You" year: 2018 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/sorry-to-bother-you" fi1m_score: 81 critics_score: 77 critics_reviews: 25 published: "2026-09-17T09:07:33.977600+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T09:07:48.382725+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Sorry to Bother You (2018) Directed by Boots Riley · 1h 52m · MPA R · Fantasy, Science Fiction, Comedy **Fi1m score: 81** · Critics 77 from 25 reviews *In a sentence:* Getting ahead at work apparently requires a different actor to do the talking > Boots Riley’s corporate satire is funny, angry and anchored by LaKeith Stanfield’s calmly bemused performance. The overcrowding wears us down in places, but the jokes about race and getting ahead are sharp enough to earn our patience. ## Synopsis Cassius Green (LaKeith Stanfield) has a white voice that sounds nothing like him: David Cross supplies it. Changing how he sounds offers Cassius a way of getting ahead in a workplace governed by race and money. Around him are Detroit (Tessa Thompson), Langston (Danny Glover) and Salvador (Jermaine Fowler). Corporate demands and the possibility of collective resistance complicate his pursuit of success. Cassius wants to rise, but doing so means reckoning with what he is willing to accept, what he is prepared to change about himself and what his choices mean for other people. ## Review *Sorry to Bother You* is a funny, angry corporate satire whose excesses are worth putting up with. Writer and director Boots Riley takes the pressure to get ahead and pushes it into absurdity, keeping race and money in the same conversation. The film asks what a worker must change about himself before the system will reward him, and how far he might go once the rewards begin. It is strongest when an outrageous joke makes that pressure easy to understand. LaKeith Stanfield gives Cassius Green the bemused steadiness this much commotion needs. He leaves us enough space to recognise an ordinary wish to do better, even when the film surrounding him becomes aggressively strange. That matters because a satire about selling out can make its central character seem contemptible before the audience has understood the temptation. Here, we can follow Cassius’s ambition without being asked to excuse whatever it might cost. The white voice is the clearest example of how well the comedy can work. Cassius has a voice supplied by David Cross, turning the pressure to accommodate racial expectations into something we can actually hear. We laughed at that mismatch, then felt uncomfortable about how readily the idea made sense. The gag makes racial advantage something a worker can put to use, with all the humiliation that implies. LaKeith Stanfield’s measured presence keeps the joke attached to Cassius. Doug Emmett’s cinematography makes room for literal sight gags, while Jason Kisvarday’s production design gives the corporate world the same exaggerated character as the dialogue. We would not want these people photographed with the solemnity of a business drama. The visual excess suits the jokes, although there are passages when another strange image feels like one addition too many. The actors remain useful guides through it, with Tessa Thompson providing a forceful presence alongside LaKeith Stanfield. Terel Gibson’s editing keeps the jokes moving quickly enough that we are not left waiting for the film to explain each one. The trouble comes when the film keeps introducing ideas without giving the previous ones enough room. Merrill Garbus and Boots Riley’s music contributes to that restless feel, and the accumulation can become tiring. We wanted a little more time with the people, particularly in the romantic subplot, which is thinner than the attention given to the film’s more extravagant inventions. That crowdedness is the substantial caveat. Some jokes run beyond the point at which their meaning is clear, and the later stretches could use a firmer cut. Yet the science-fiction elements belong in a comedy this willing to exaggerate the demands of employers. We will not describe where that takes the story. The increasingly strange material makes sense, even when the pacing falters. A workplace comedy can get by with an awful boss and the satisfaction of watching someone answer back. Boots Riley is interested in collective resistance, so the film keeps asking what happens beyond one person’s escape from a bad job. That gives its anger a purpose, even when its storytelling becomes untidy. At 112 minutes, it is not a particularly long film, but it asks for a tolerance of digression as well as a taste for abrasive jokes. Give it that much patience; the borrowed voice alone is worth hearing. *Fi1m score 81, published 17 September 2026.* ### Reviews we read (25) - **The Times**, Kevin Maher (★★★★★): Riley’s exuberant and original debut deviates from commercial clichés with a restless, inventive style. The film succeeds as a triumph of ideas and physical texture, anchored by Stanfield’s performance. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/sorry-to-bother-you-review-n03mslzql) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (90/100, inferred): Riley’s assured debut is a gleefully anarchic satire on capitalism that shifts from acerbic humour into bizarre territory. The film stands out for its inventive use of the ‘white voice’ conceit and literal sight gags. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/dec/09/sorry-to-bother-you-review-boots-riley) - **The New Yorker**, Richard Brody (90/100, inferred): The review lauds the rapid, profuse, and overwhelmingly inventive comedy that uses caustic satire to blast societal horrors. It highlights the righteous rage channeled into a vision of collective resistance and the rich loam of experience behind the film. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/sorry-to-bother-you-reviewed-a-wild-workplace-comedy-energized-by-righteous-anger) - **The New York Times**, A.O. Scott (NYT Critic’s Pick): The critic praises the film's wild, inventive dystopian satire that flips, swerves, and explodes with ideas and inspirations. It singles out the director's originality as both an omnivore and an original in blending influences into something fresh. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/02/movies/sorry-to-bother-you-review-lakeith-stanfield.html) - **Vulture** (90/100, inferred): Riley's rambunctious, surreal comedy has focus, conviction and rhythmic drive as loud, inventive and impolite revolution-minded cinema that stays human amid the weirdness. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2018/07/review-sorry-to-bother-you-is-the-punk-film-2018-deserves.html) - **Empire**, Alex Godfrey (85/100, inferred): The critic calls it a wildly inventive, adrenalised anti-capitalist satire that throws ideas at the screen with audacity and invention, praising Stanfield and Thompson's performances while noting it can be overwhelming in its crazed energy. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/sorry-bother-review/) - **Los Angeles Times**, Justin Chang (85/100, inferred): The critic calls it a joyous dystopian cackle of a directing debut and an arrestingly surreal satire on class rage and cultural identity. It singles out the playful, restlessly imaginative work drawing from eclectic influences like blaxploitation and Spike Jonze’s whimsy. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-sorry-to-bother-you-review-20180705-story.html) - **Total Film** (85/100, inferred): The critic hails it as wildly inventive and unhinged, a riotous blend of comedy, satire and sci-fi that tackles race and capitalism with irreverent humour, praising the perfect bemused lead and abundance of ideas. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/sorry-to-bother-you-review/) - **IndieWire**, Eric Kohn (B+): The film is a whip-smart satire of racial dynamics that reaches into the stratosphere with bonkers, crystal-clear ideas and hits its targets more often than not. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/2018/01/sorry-to-bother-you-review-boots-riley-lakeith-stanfield-sundance-2018-1201919699/) - **Evening Standard**, Charlotte O'Sullivan (80/100, inferred): The critic describes it as a loopy, audacious debut that mixes hilarious gags about fascism and capitalism with sci-fi elements, praising the originality, magnetic lead performance, and magical sequences while noting a romantic subplot falls short. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/sorry-to-bother-you-review-a-crazy-call-to-arms-a4011006.html) - **Little White Lies**, Matthew Eng (4/4/4): Riley's surrealist vision of corporate servitude is a hard-hitting, go-for-broke comedy that rattles and exhilarates, articulating social anxieties with craft, intelligence and imagination despite some overstuffing. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/sorry-to-bother-you) - **Sight and Sound**, Adam Nayman (80/100, inferred): The critic praises Boots Riley's wildly inventive debut as an unruly, outrageous corporate satire that takes aim at the racial politics of late-stage capitalism with invention and ingenuity. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/film-week-sorry-bother-you-unruly-outrageous-corporate-satire) - **Variety** (75/100, inferred): The review describes the gonzo debut as deliriously creative and ambitious, a sui generis satire that knocks socks off with its confrontational take on the system. It singles out the immensely likable lead performance against fat-cat capitalists in this wildly inventive piece. [Read](https://variety.com/2018/film/reviews/sundance-film-review-sorry-to-bother-you-review-1202671492/) - **Radio Times**, Terry Staunton (3/5): Boots Riley has fashioned an intriguing absurdist comedy with a message and mirth, though the premise escalates into outlandish fantasy that occasionally risks losing sight of its intentions and sags in the final third. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-rt32ci/sorry-to-bother-you/) - **Screen Daily** (60/100, inferred): Riley delivers an original satire on race and greed that is hit-and-miss, alternatingly socially-conscious and ludicrous, packing in so many ideas that it does not always cohere but stands out as ambitious and outrageous. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/sorry-to-bother-you-sundance-review/5125765.article) - **Time Out**, Michael Gingold (3/5): Riley's race satire is a funny, offbeat and wildly original wild ride that spins into science-fiction but never quite balances its topical concerns and bizarre flights of fancy. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/sorry-to-bother-you) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, David Rooney (50/100, inferred): The critic finds the film a blithely messy absurdist satire lacking clarity of vision that feels like a stoner riff, but praises its originality, wacky creativity and impressive cast. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/sorry-bother-you-review-sundance-2018-1076466/) - **Slant Magazine**, Ed Gonzalez (30/100, inferred): The film is unmistakably alive to the humiliations of social systems keeping the lower classes in place but loses something as its wild digressions and overdone jokes turn it into a lark. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/sorry-to-bother-you/) - **Polygon**, Monica Castillo (85/100, inferred): The critic calls it a sharp-witted, must-see hybrid of workplace satire and social commentary on racial inequality, economic strife, and corporate exploitation. Stanfield’s bemused lead performance and the film’s bold, surreal style and memorable imagery are singled out for praise. [Read](https://www.polygon.com/2018/7/6/17540348/sorry-to-bother-you-review/) - **Den of Geek**, Patrick Sproull (4/5): The critic praises the film's bold, bonkers satire on capitalism and its unique vision, highlighting Lakeith Stanfield's performance. They note a minor shortcoming in the climax but overall call it an exceptionally skilled and caustic debut. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/sorry-to-bother-you-review-a-potent-prickly-debut/) - **/Film**, Ben Pearson (8/10): Praises the stellar cast grounding the mind-bending social satire, the eccentric debut with plenty to say; singles out the balance of weirdness and meaningful story, and standout performances. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/555824/sorry-to-bother-you-review/) - **HeyUGuys**, Luke Channell (4/5): The critic praises its ambition, distinctive humor, and political engagement, calling it a future cult classic; singles out the inventive satire on capitalism and race, and strong performances especially Armie Hammer. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/sorry-to-bother-you-review/) - **NME**, Alex Flood (4/5): The review calls it one of the funniest films of 2018, a dystopian workplace satire with surreal elements, praising Riley's script and Stanfield's performance as a wake-up call on white privilege. [Read](https://www.nme.com/reviews/sorry-to-bother-you-film-review-2417001) - **Collider**, Matt Goldberg (B): The critic finds the film an ambitious but uneven satire that tackles too many ideas at once and feels sluggish in places despite strong moments. Stanfield’s grounded lead performance and Riley’s fearlessly weird visuals and gags stand out as highlights. [Read](https://collider.com/sorry-to-bother-you-review/) - **The Wrap**, Alonso Duralde (70/100, inferred): The critic praises this ambitious, outrageous satire as a timely and provocative debut that swings in many directions and largely succeeds in capturing the 2018 zeitgeist with humor and ideas about race and power. The cast is singled out for making the absurd feel real, particularly Stanfield and Thompson's performances that ground the film's themes. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/sorry-to-bother-you-film-review-boots-riley-lakeith-stanfield-tessa-thompson/) ## Details - **Director:** Boots Riley - **Director:** Boots Riley - **Writer:** Boots Riley - **Cinematography:** Doug Emmett - **Editor:** Terel Gibson - **Music:** Merrill Garbus, Boots Riley - **Production design:** Jason Kisvarday - **Costume design:** Deirdra Elizabeth Govan - **Producer:** George Rush, Jonathan Duffy, Kelly Williams - **Cast:** LaKeith Stanfield as Cassius Green; Tessa Thompson as Detroit; Jermaine Fowler as Salvador; Omari Hardwick as Mr. _______; Terry Crews as Sergio; Kate Berlant as Diana DeBauchery; Michael X. Sommers as Johnny; Danny Glover as Langston - **Runtime:** 1h 52m - **Certificate (MPA):** R - **Release (the US):** 6 July 2018 - **Genres:** Fantasy, Science Fiction, Comedy - **Budget:** $3 million - **Box office:** $18 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeISaoQDh2g ## Where to watch in the US - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - Apple TV: buy $9.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AT, AU, BE, BG, CA, CH, CZ, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HU, IE, IL, IT, LT, NL, NO, NZ, PH, PL, PT, SE, UA, US, VN. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Putney Swope* (1969): Advertising, racial politics and corporate ambition subjected to a similarly unruly comic treatment. - *The Man in the White Suit* (1951): A workplace invention exposes how readily employers and workers can fear the same change. - *Office Space* (1999), Fi1m 80: Smaller office humiliations, less surreal invention, and an equally healthy distrust of management. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/office-space.md) - *The Bothersome Man* (2006): Another comfortable working life made disturbing by rules nobody seems willing to question. - *Bacurau* (2019): Class anger and collective resistance drive another film best approached without plot details. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/sorry-to-bother-you