WHITE NOISE
SORRY TO BOTHER YOU, READER, BUT I NEED TO TALK about Boots Riley’s unprecedented (as the pundits say daily) debut feature in the first person, at least for a bit. It’s so challenging to describe the action without spoilers even after multiple viewings that I will let Boots himself summarize the plot via his Sundance Labs fellowship blurb: “A black telemarketer with self-esteem issues discovers a magical key to business success… When he uncovers the macabre secret of his corporate overlords, he must decide whether to stand up or sell out.”
Cassius Green (Lakeith Stanfield) is the insecure, young, black telemarketer, who’s based upon Riley’s own experiences in phone sales and fundraising. Cassius has a loving and emotionally supportive girlfriend, Detroit (Tessa Thompson, from Dear White People), a multimedia performance artist who creates idiosyncratic, culturally conscious jewelry and twirls signs (for a sign store) to make money. Broke, worn down, and owing back rent to his Uncle Sergio (Terry Crews), Cassius finagles his way into a sales job at a company called Regal View. Given only the instruction to Stick to the Script (STTS), he is tasked with hawking products and/or services that are never fully revealed (at least, at first). His “magical key” is the ability to tap into his “white voice,” as advised by a veteran co-worker, Langston (a gravelly Danny Glover).
But wait, there’s more! Cassius’s gift gains the notice of management, leading to his getting kicked up the corporate ladder to the domain of the mostly white “power sellers” and the offices of the eccentric, serape-clad magnate Steve Lift, interpreted manically by Armie Hammer. At the same time, his best friend, Salvador (Jermaine Fowler), and co-workers led by an activist, Squeeze (Steven Yeun), organize to
