SXSW was in its traditional wild form on opening night with Boots Riley’s upcoming NEON movie I Love Boosters, a psychedelic, absurdist caper about a group of fashionista shoplifters who steal from a fashion icon only to sell her line on discount.
Plenty of laughs, some standing ovation — it’s everything a studio craves when they launch a movie in the Lone Star State’s capital city at its Paramount Theatre filled with cinephiles.
Keke Palmer plays Corvette, an aspiring fashion designer, who has her own boosters store (stolen fashion goods that are sold in the neighborhood at a much lower cost). Her posse which also includes Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, and ultimately Poppy Liu target specifically a corrupt fashion designer, Christie Smith, played by Demi Moore. Smith, aside from gouging prices and stealing others’ designs (specifically a flappy pocket suit designed by Corvette, is wrecking further havoc over in a mainland China clothing factory where workers are coming down with lung cancer due to her use of a sawdust-like fabric. Revenge is the only option for Corvette. LaKeith Stanfield plays a guy (with another agenda) who keeps popping up and having the hots for Corvette. Eiza González is a stoner punk retail worker who becomes an ally to the women in their takedown of Smith, but also a sage when it comes to explaining time travel.
“When it came to I Love Boosters, it was more me thinking about specifically fashion, which is though of as an artistic endeavor. What is behind art? You can put that with everything. How does it get made? What puts the value on it?” explained the ten-gallon-plus hat filmmaker about his upcoming heist comedy.
“The idea that so many people want to be involved with art; they’re in that conversation, but it cost so much,” Riley explained about the satirical takedown of capitalism, the 1% and the backs on which they stand.
“It’s interesting because someone who does a PA announcement in the film, Kate Berlant, she has a stand-up bit that make should be free for women. They should be able to steal it. Without it, you can’t get a job, you can’t be a member of society,” he emphasized about one of his points in the fashion comedy.
Said Palmer about Riley “he knows how it will tie-in together, even the different color mapping,” the pic filled with yellows, reds, greens and more.
“It’s different every time I watch it. I watched it so many times. I usually don’t watch myself: ‘Hey, put on that Keke Palmer movie.’ The reward is I keep seeing the different layers of things.”
“Whether you’re Latin, Black or Asian American, we’re dealing with some crazy struggles. (We need to) stop fighting our own independent fights — that’s the situation accelerator,” said Palmer referring to one of the teleports in the movie which aids the women in their swift heists of a couture retail chain.
Said Gonzalez about the nose-ring nerd that she plays, “As a Mexican woman playing this character, it means a lot. She’s someone who wants to raise her voice to the world. She’s brilliant, a vaping weed brainiac. I love that he thought of me for a character like this. It’s not something I’m thought of or. We need more directors who take risks and don’t put you in a box.” Gonzalez is doing double-duty at this year’s SXSW with another movie making its premiere at the Paramount Theatre on Saturday, March 14, Hulu’s action movie Mick & Nick & Nick & Alice.
Liu said that the cast lived in a hotel in Atlanta for two-and-half months were they fostered a “circadian rhythm which was only matched to each other and no one else.”
I Love Boosters hits cinemas on May 22.
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