Annapurna Pictures | Release Date: July 6, 2018
7.0
USER SCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 248 Ratings
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Positive:
174
Mixed:
40
Negative:
34
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1
ScraperMay 13, 2019
There is a movie coming out soon called Loqueesha that uses this exact same concept with the races reversed and it's getting absolutely torched for racial insensitivity. It seems to me that if a black project doesn't stereotype white peopleThere is a movie coming out soon called Loqueesha that uses this exact same concept with the races reversed and it's getting absolutely torched for racial insensitivity. It seems to me that if a black project doesn't stereotype white people in some way then it's considered to not be doing it's job. I don't think its brave, funny, or original in any way. Expand
1 of 1 users found this helpful10
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2
zmgalen2000Jul 26, 2018
This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Although the film has a myriad of satirical moments, its slow progression, poor visuals, cliché moments, and overall weirdness deter from its potential. This film, marketed as a comedy, wound up being a cult film surrounding naked equisapiens (horse/human mutant creatures), irrelevant to the plot's central foundation. Furthermore, the CGI/costuming pertaining to these beasts was adequate at best, making it highly unbelievable.

Moments not pertaining to the cult were often dull, as the majority of the comedic moments/significant plot points were revealed in the second trailer, causing the first two-thirds of the movie to progress slowly. Moreover, the film was dragged out far too much, and the remaining twenty-some-odd minutes felt strenuous and ingenuine.

Finally, the lip-synching for each of the character's "white voice" was extremely poor, especially when the voice was loud and define while the character's lips hardly, if at all, moved. All in all, this movie may have some appeal to those who want a taste of something different or enjoy a cult film, but to most, the convolution of elements protruding in a multitude of directions results in nothing but unnecessary disinterest and perplexion.
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2 of 5 users found this helpful23
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3
Eight827Jul 15, 2018
Did I see a different movie than nearly every critic out there? Original does not automatically equal good. Social commentary/satire does not automatically make a movie good. It took a very thin premise in the first place, and attempted toDid I see a different movie than nearly every critic out there? Original does not automatically equal good. Social commentary/satire does not automatically make a movie good. It took a very thin premise in the first place, and attempted to stretch it across an entire movie. The movie sucked. Hard. Flat direction, zero energy, moved scene to scene leaving you going "Ok...", you could hear the awkwardness in the audience as joke after joke fell flat, as scene cut after scene cut fell flat (except for the first 20 minutes which are genuinely not bad) cliche racial humor, extremely on the nose social commentary. It was just bad, and it's amazing that it's a critical darling. I suggest following the critics who realize this is garbage, because yes, it was bad. Just plodding and beating you over the head. And it's not the surrealism that got me either, that was interesting. It's the terrible flat direction/editing and cliche writing. The movie is gimmicky and tacky. Even the way the overdubbing of the white voices is recorded comes off like something you'd hear in The Hangover. In other words, it's poorly done. Even if it's trying to be absurdist, it falls flat. I'm all for its message and what it's trying to say, but this is not even close to the best we can do. It's painfully obvious this is a guy who is not competent at directing. This is Boots Riley's debut and it shows. Open your eyes guys...it's bad. Expand
5 of 17 users found this helpful512
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2
bjemailxxxxJul 16, 2018
This movie falls flat on so many levels. I felt like it was the result of a group of Millennials, locked in a room throwing out individual scenes, and laughing hysterically at the thought of each. By the way, these individuals have alwaysThis movie falls flat on so many levels. I felt like it was the result of a group of Millennials, locked in a room throwing out individual scenes, and laughing hysterically at the thought of each. By the way, these individuals have always been told that everything they have ever done was amazing. They have never been told that they created crap, and if they did, their parents (or some adult in the room) fixed it. I love, absolutely love surrealist art and satire (Dali, Jarmusch, and Rodriguez are favorites). One of the elements of both surrealism and satire is subtle absurdity. This movie has none of that, in fact it looks to grab every social warrior cliche and up-chuck it in our faces. It gets 2 stars because of the lead's earrings, which are beyond huge (really yooooouuuge) and always carry some social justice sentence subtitle, just in case you missed it in the trite words and images flashing across the screen. The art work is also very nice, and some scene set ups, that is the background scenery is also very interesting. However the movie does not work as a cohesive movie moving from scene to scene with an actual integrated story. At first we really care about the characters, because they are likable, Opening scenes are good. then we realize we could have watched paint dry for 1hr 45min and gotten more intellectual stimulation from that exercise. Next there is the offense factor, I'm not some old biddy clutching the pearls, but the F bomb is used as an adjective. Now that is the way it's used, if you ever take public transportation, at least in the NYC area, however you hope there is at least an entertaining story in between the F bombs. The F bomb is not where the offense ends, as a black person, we all know when there are times that you get a better response in speaking very clearly, and dropping all signs and residue of colloquialism. However increase this by a power of 1000 for the movie. It's in the commercial with Danny Glover, so this is not a spoiler. The over the top high five scene is guffaw worthy if you have ever seen this go on for a interminable amount of time in real life, which I have. However offense comes in really trying force making race an issue, when it's not. The gratuitous use of the N word as well as the word booshe (bourgeosie). Any black person can be shamed by being called part of the bourgeoisie, or booshee, noted by virtue of living in a comfortable clean, well furnished home, having a comfortable car, and dressing nicely (without necessarily dressing urban). Clearly (based on social justice rules) all black folk should be part of the struggle, and not have the best they can afford. They should ascribe to some socialist vision of giving their excess to the guy who doesn't get up for work at 5:30am every day, and who doesn't work 2 or 3 jobs. That guy deserves it. Next offense, 'the man' and his capitalistic ways, making money and making people work like slaves, while promising them a better life. When they can have him taking care of them. Wait is that 'the Welfare'? But I digress, let's keep our focus on evil corporate America. Next offense, gratuitous use of woman in her underwear, or otherwise levels of undress. I could not understand why the lead Tessa Thompson is basically only in varying styles of underwear for most of the movie. This is off-set by a performance art display (for no apparent reason) where she is all but naked. She is then pelted with various items, include red dye filled water ballons. Why? We don't know why. The movie doesn't know why. Oh the offense goes on to a scene where rap is reduced to literally two words, one is the N word, the other begins with S and easily describes this move. However our lead is gleefully cheered on by a crowd of white individuals who repeat the refrain for like 2 minutes of the movie. Why? Well we don't know why, I guess that is the satire part, because I can swear I saw Jay-Z do the exact same thing, with the exact same words. Or may that was N word in Paris, that is one more word. All this foo-foo-la goes on. Why? well it's very profound you know. A statement about where we are. Let the people revolt! Stand up against the man! Don't be a booshee sell out! Don't be a slave to capitalistic ideals! The ending, well now we are somewhere where the main focus seems to be to zoom in, or otherwise comment on the male member. That is not to even mention the scene where people are in various states of copulation for no apparent reason. I'm a fan of Dali's Jeune vierge auto-****par sa propre chastete, so that's not subtle, but this movie, is inane, in turns not funny, not clever.not insightful, does not say anything about today's culture, misses the mark There are so many better things you could do with your time, like wash your car, or pull weeds from the yard or sit at home and pick your nose (that's my not humor humor). Expand
4 of 14 users found this helpful410
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3
handersonJul 15, 2018
I wanted to like this movie. I love the individual actors. But WTF did I just watch? One of the worst movies I've seen in years. Maybe it was too high of expectations but this movie starts off ok and then takes a sharp turn towards Crazytown.I wanted to like this movie. I love the individual actors. But WTF did I just watch? One of the worst movies I've seen in years. Maybe it was too high of expectations but this movie starts off ok and then takes a sharp turn towards Crazytown. Not a fan at all. Expand
4 of 15 users found this helpful411
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1
GreatMartinAug 3, 2018
This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Just as I think I have seen the worst movie of the year another one comes along and this was recommended (but then I forgot he liked “Dumb and Dumber”).

I was debating between seeing “Blindspotting” and “Sorry to Bother You” but Allen (heck, I might as well blame him, too) wanted to see a comedy so Sorry it was.

“Sorry to Bother You” is being ‘sold’ as a comedy/satire with Cassius Green (Lakeith Stanfield) an African-American who lives in his Uncle’s (Terry Crews) garage converted into a studio where the garage door opens when he is making love to his girlfriend Detroit, (Tessa Thompson) who as an artist is all over the place including ‘performance art’, wearing outsize earrings with a message, eye makeup with a ‘tear’ constantly changing and hair multitude colors.

The first 15 minutes is entertaining presenting the set up of Cassius getting a telemarketing job and being advised by a cubicle neighbor (Danny Glover) to use a ‘white voice’ (dubbed by David Cross) and, almost immediately, becomes a huge success. At this point the movie becomes like Detroit’s art, all over the place, no particular point of view, throwing whatever at the screen hoping something sticks.

The director and screenwriter, Boots Riley, presents the most popular show on TV called “I Got The S*it Kicked Out Of Me” which is pure violence, there is a company called Worry Free that is experimenting turning employees into half horses, half men (nothing about women but promising the male workers a ‘horse’s penis’), run by Armie Hammer who introduces the world of Slavery, plus telemarketers going on strike lead by Steven Yeun calling the group Left Eye. There is a ‘joke’ of people being slammed in the head with a Cola that, once introduced, and not being funny going on and on which is hard to do in a movie that runs a 105 minutes.
Funny? Not really except for that garage door opening scene. Satire? So scattered and/or subtle it gets lost.

Sorry, unless you want to be bored out of your mind don’t go to see “Sorry to Bother You”.
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3 of 12 users found this helpful39
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2
ibarixOct 14, 2018
I just can't believe all this hype. This movie is pure BS. 33 minutes in and I still haven't laughed once. People obviously lack sense of humor when this is "hilarious" to them. The movie is so forgettable no one will even mention it in 6I just can't believe all this hype. This movie is pure BS. 33 minutes in and I still haven't laughed once. People obviously lack sense of humor when this is "hilarious" to them. The movie is so forgettable no one will even mention it in 6 months. Mark my words. There are some good ideas but this is nowhere near being a comedy. It's plain stupid. Do people giving 10's even know what a 10 movie looks like? I'm amazed.
PS 49 minutes in and it's still stupid... I'll give it a 2/10 because of the good ideas, everything else sucked so hard it's unbelievable. Don't believe the hype. This movie is sh*t.
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1 of 4 users found this helpful13
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1
texbudJul 15, 2018
This movie is offensive in so many ways to so many people , all in the name of, satire and dark humor, we are senior, white Christians and after 15 minutes of fbombs and racist innuendos, left and demanded our money back! I think it could beThis movie is offensive in so many ways to so many people , all in the name of, satire and dark humor, we are senior, white Christians and after 15 minutes of fbombs and racist innuendos, left and demanded our money back! I think it could be the leading offensive movie of the year, to ALL decent people! Expand
3 of 39 users found this helpful336
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1
rlovellJul 25, 2019
The most weirdest, confusing, awful garble of a movie I have ever seen. The plot was too thin, the acting was strange, the story in general was just not funny and inherently bad.
0 of 2 users found this helpful02
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2
silverrocketAug 11, 2018
This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The first 10 minutes ring up like a low budget comedy...nevermind the music videos played before depicting a white rich person getting decapitated, which is fine. I dont care, I really dont. I suspected it was related to the movie but, not until I realized the actor in the music video was the "white voice" our hero uses early on the make the social and financial transformation he experiences. "Sound like you have a ferarii in the driveway and all your bills are paid...like white people do". I dont quote precisely, but close enough for crappy movies. The attempt to combine low budget comedy w social commentary and artsy awareness/quirkyness winds up just being tired cliche', on all points. Starving artist, poor to rich, turning your back on the little people for money, and ultimate redemption. White racial insensitivity, demonic buisnessmen either white or black w "white voice" tearing the world appart through marketed self imposed slavery where our hereo winds up working for big money. All of which who partake in "worryfreeliving" of course are white too...which is basically slavery. The only new aspect is the genetic manipulation of humans for use in labor half horse half man. Avoid this movie unkess you want to bask in its wokeness and laugh with other woke people to absolutely not a funny movie. It literally is a terrible movie. Expand
0 of 3 users found this helpful03
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3
QuevaalSep 21, 2019
It started out well enough as a pretty OK satire on call centers but half way through the satire shifted to something more sinister. The first sign was probably when Danny Glover came across as creepy with the "white voice". Then the sinisterIt started out well enough as a pretty OK satire on call centers but half way through the satire shifted to something more sinister. The first sign was probably when Danny Glover came across as creepy with the "white voice". Then the sinister eventually managed to become completely far fetched. So, rest assured that the movie escalates a lot. Expand
0 of 0 users found this helpful00
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3
kylo1234321Dec 29, 2019
i didn't understand this movie at all and i feel bad for it. Every performance was great by default but this movie is just too surreal for me. It is an interesting concept, and i praise Boots Reily for it, but it was just too weird and strange.
0 of 0 users found this helpful00
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