'I Love Boosters' Review
- Matthew Creith
- 18 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Release Date: 05/22/26 [Cinemas]
Genre: Adventure. Comedy. Drama. SciFi.
MPAA: Rated R.
Distributor: Neon.
Seen for SXSW 2026.
The Verdict: A Must-See
The opening night of the 2026 South by Southwest Film & TV Festival kicked off appropriately with the latest flick from rapper turned writer-director Boots Riley, I Love Boosters. Almost a decade after Riley's debut feature, Sorry to Bother You stormed into theaters, making a movie star out of Lakeith Stanfield, Riley's surrealist take on capitalism and consumerism is enhanced with his sophomore film. An often hilarious, whacked-out bite out of the crime world of Bay Area shoplifters, I Love Boosters bolsters an impressive cast that leans heavily into the universe Riley creates.
The always charismatic Keke Palmer stars as Corvette, a shoplifter who resells high-end clothes she steals at a discount on the streets, who dreams of being a fashion designer herself. Corvette leads a trio of shoplifters known as the Velvet Gang, alongside Sade (Naomi Ackie) and Mariah (Taylour Paige). The gang steals high-end designer clothes from stores and resells them at a hefty discount on the street or in their apartment. They're criminals in the legal sense, but Riley frames them as a band of merry Robin Hoods pursuing a kind of street-level redistribution.
But Corvette dreams of being a fashion designer herself, even when the industry she idolizes is controlled by figures like the icy, imperious Christie Smith (a post-Oscar nominee Demi Moore). Smith embodies the contradictions of luxury branding as a visionary creative force wrapped up in a system that thrives on exploitation and exclusivity. Corvette is drawn to that world even as she recognizes its hypocrisy.
What begins as a grounded crime comedy gradually mutates into something far stranger. Riley fills the movie with surreal twists and visual wonders, including impossibly ridiculous architecture and increasingly absurd narrative turns involving global supply chains and rebellious Chinese factory workers. The plot eventually leaps into full-blown sci-fi territory (think Ghostbusters and Looper) with devices that bend time, space, and reality itself.
Like Riley's previous film, the story pushes its satire to extremes, sometimes abandoning reality and coherence for audacious spectacle. The result is messy, colorful, and frequently hilarious. It's a movie bursting with ideas even when it struggles to contain them.
Not every subplot lands, unfortunately. A few characters wander in and out of the film without fully developing fully, and I Love Boosters occasionally feels overwhelmed by its own imagination. The chaotic structure also carries a certain energy, suggesting that Riley is less interested in crafting a tidy story than in throwing a barrage of ideas at the audience about labor, branding, and the strange psychology of consumer desire.
The movie's biggest strength is its cast, with Palmer leading the way. The Nope actress anchors the madness with a performance that's both playful and leveled, giving Corvette enough emotional weight to keep the story from floating away entirely. Moore relishes her role as a ruthless designer, while appearances from performers like Don Cheadle and LaKeith Stanfield add eccentric comic detours.
Visually, I Love Boosters is a feast. Bold costume design and vibrant cinematography turn the fashion world into a hyper-stylized playground of color and texture, reinforcing Riley's directorial style as one to root for. The movie delights in the phenomenon of high-end fashion even as it criticizes the industry behind it.
I Love Boosters doesn't focus on telling a tightly wound story. Riley and company are more interested in capturing the contradictions of modern consumer culture. It's an unruly, overstuffed satire with chaotic energy that somehow works, primarily because Keke Palmer continues to demonstrate star power with every project she adds to her impressive filmography.
If you suspend disbelief and refrain from holding onto common narrative structures for 105 minutes of screen time, I Love Boosters steals pieces from everywhere and stitches them into something entirely its own...and worth the watch.
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