I Love Boosters
Neon | Release Date: May 22, 2026 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
70
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
26
Mixed:
7
Negative:
1

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
The PlaylistMonica CastilloMar 14, 2026
Buffeted by both an incredible cast and crew, I Love Boosters is an unexpected celebration of friendship, community, and solidarity. Read full review
88
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldMay 21, 2026
Funny, occasionally raunchy and dressed in a deliciously rainbow-bright array of costumes, Boots Riley’s fizzy caper “I Love Boosters” is just the thing for summer. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshMay 21, 2026
For such heavy political themes and rallying cries to action, Riley makes it wildly entertaining, with eye-popping visuals, and a circus-inspired score by Tune-Yards. What’s most important is that among all the mishaps and misadventures, his message never loses its clarity: Liberation is for everyone, and, most importantly, it should be fun. Read full review
80
SlashfilmBill BriaMay 21, 2026
The film, like fashion, like life itself, could be seen as just something pretty. Yet to those who take Riley's invite to go beyond the surface, it can reveal much more. To quote Shakira: underneath your clothes, there's an endless story. Read full review
80
The RevealKeith PhippsMay 21, 2026
It’s a lot, occasionally too much, but it’s pointed and funny and Palmer’s vulnerable performance serves as an emotional anchor no matter how wild the world around her becomes. Read full review
80
IGNAlyssa MoraMay 21, 2026
I Love Boosters, Boots Riley’s candy-colored indictment of capitalism, is as sharp as it is deranged. Living somewhere along the spectrum of magical realism, the entire film is a brilliant balancing act of comedy and call-to-action that sprinkles a little philosophy in-between. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesAmy NicholsonMay 21, 2026
“Boosters” isn’t perfect and that doesn’t matter. The audacity of it — the exuberance Riley puts into making and loving movies — is what I want to see more of from every filmmaker, fashionista and human being still grinding at their own creative ambitions. Read full review
80
ColliderRoss BonaimeMar 13, 2026
I Love Boosters is full of major swings and plenty of individual concepts that could take up an entire film, yet Riley balances everything this movie is trying to do quite well. Read full review
80
Next Best PictureDan BayerMar 13, 2026
Boots Riley is a genuine original, and in I Love Boosters, he makes a statement as wildly entertaining as possible. Read full review
80
Screen DailyRobert DanielsMar 13, 2026
Though its many narrative twists and amusing turns might wear down less adventurous viewers, this film will be embraced by those who enjoyed the director’s dystopian critique Sorry to Bother You and his equally scathing series I’m a Virgo. Read full review
80
TheWrapChase HutchinsonMar 13, 2026
Riley, proving himself to be a romantic just as he is a believer in revolution, clearly not only loves these boosters with hearts of gold, but anyone that is trying to make it all work for themselves and those around them. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterAngie HanMar 12, 2026
I find it hard to wish Riley would rein himself in when the excess is so much a part of the film’s joy. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleJoe GrossMay 21, 2026
If we have learned anything from Coup frontman Boots Riley’s brief-but-bananapants filmography, it’s that he loves Marx, surrealism, and Oakland. As in his still-amazing debut Sorry to Bother You, he staples all three together in his second feature as writer and director, the chaotic, often very funny I Love Boosters. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMay 26, 2026
Imperfect but sometimes dazzling, I Love Boosters offers something in depressingly short supply in theaters these days: a fresh, imaginative vision driven more by creative impulses than the quest for big box-office dollars. Read full review
75
The Travers TakePeter TraversMay 22, 2026
It’s Keke Palmer vs Demi Moore in a fashion smackdown from radically funny director Boots Riley who steals laughs from places you never thought you’d find them. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubJacob OllerMay 21, 2026
I Love Boosters paints another winning amusement park ride in the bright colors of its filmmaker’s politics. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonMay 20, 2026
I’m not sure if the movie works overall, and there are a lot of loose ends that may frustrate some viewers. But I was hooked and couldn’t stop watching Riley’s raunchy, outrageous vision unfold. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonMay 19, 2026
It’s hard to imagine a more original movie, or a more unfiltered vision from the mind of its maker. Read full review
75
The Film StageJohn FinkMar 13, 2026
A funny, often fascinating riff on aspirations both in and out of reach, I Love Boosters is ambitious and, like Sorry to Bother You, explores the systems that make the American Dream possible for only a select few. But the film is also a gleeful celebration of the underdogs scraping by as the cost of living increases. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoMar 13, 2026
Riley understands that satire can embed messaging in the whimsy. You’ll walk out of this one feeling boosted. Read full review
75
IndieWireRyan LattanzioMar 12, 2026
Boots Riley deserves applause for his brazen vision. . . He loses grip on the material overall, but as far as genre movies that actually turn out to be political missives go, there are worse entertainments. And with Keke Palmer at the front, you’re always in sure hands. Read full review
70
VarietyOwen GleibermanMar 12, 2026
It’s an incendiary prank of a movie that begs our indulgence at times yet also invites us to get high on what a playful provocation it is. Read full review
70
Screen RantGregory NussenMar 12, 2026
It is, ultimately, a film completely uninterested in subtlety. That's both to its credit and to its detriment. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreMay 25, 2026
Capitalism’s end game is taunted and satirized in I Love Boosters, a loopy, anarchic comedy about shoplifting, fashion, media mass indoctrination and This Cultural Moment. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Sarah-Tai BlackMay 21, 2026
While a thrilling watch at many moments, there is also an overwhelming sense that politics and characters of I Love Boosters are struggling to find their full expression against the weight of the film’s undeniably spirited ambition. Read full review
63
The Associated PressLindsey BahrMay 20, 2026
In a marketplace full of content and franchises, here is a filmmaker with something to say and an interesting way to say it. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Angelica Jade BastienMay 28, 2026
Riley’s film only works in fits. Its stunning visual bravura can’t distract from what’s lacking within its filmmaker’s arsenal of storytelling tools. Read full review
60
The New YorkerRichard BrodyMay 22, 2026
An exuberantly inventive but overstretched comedy about the redistribution of luxury goods and the chic that goes with them. Read full review
60
The New York TimesMaya PhillipsMay 21, 2026
Too many elements of Riley’s sophomore feature hang like excess fabric from what would otherwise be a stunning, smart ensemble. Read full review
60
The GuardianRadheyan SimonpillaiMay 20, 2026
While every actor gets to make a brash and indelible impression, their characters can feel frustratingly limited. Read full review
60
Rolling StoneDavid FearMar 13, 2026
This film isn’t for everyone’s tastes. Then again, neither was Sorry to Bother You‘s mix of critical commentary and absurdist comedy; and, like that film, I Love Boosters takes a wilder, big-picture swerve in its third act. Still, you have to admire the fact that Riley is weaponizing his humor and using it to brusquely jostle your brain by any means necessary. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineEli FriedbergMay 17, 2026
Arrhythmic, unfocused, and forgetting to breathe, this overstuffed film feels like a circus act, a well-dressed elephant on a unicycle juggling a dozen balls. It’s an impressive feat of dexterity, if not grace. Read full review
40
The Daily BeastNick SchagerMay 21, 2026
Simplistic, scattershot, and—worst of all—unfunny, it’s a social commentary-laced crime comedy of insufferable proportions. Read full review
38
ObserverSiddhant AdlakhaMar 26, 2026
Gosh, is it ever a letdown to have a filmmaker all but pop up on screen to remind us what his movie is not-so-secretly about, before failing to live up to not only his own political objectives, but some of the most basic visual tenets of narrative filmmaking. Down with the bourgeoisie? Absolutely. But must the revolution be so sloppy? Read full review
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