I Love Boosters ★★★

Released: 30 October 2026

Director: Boots Riley

Starring: Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, Demi Moore

Boots Riley is a filmmaker who refuses to colour within the lines. Bursting onto the scene with 2018’s zany sci-fi, Sorry to Bother You, Riley returns with satirical comedy, I Love Boosters, once again demonstrating a distinct style that’s bold, brash, and brimming with razor-sharp observations on race, politics, and society.

For the uninitiated, a booster is someone who shoplifts high-value items and sells them locally for a much lower price. Corvette (Keke Palmer) is one such booster, dedicated to the job as she takes an eager man back to her apartment after a night at the club – only to reveal a warehouse full of stock and shoes he ends up buying. Corvette is part of a collective known as “The Velvet Gang”, along with Mariah (Taylour Paige) and best friend Sade (Naomi Ackie). Together, the women frequently shoplift from Metro Designers, a fashion chain owned by Christie Smith (Demi Moore), a renowned designer who labels the gang “low-class urban bitches”.

On the face of it, I Love Boosters is an absurdist satire of fashion consumerism. Riley fully commits to the kookiness, with amusing scenes of boosting in action as the women shuffle down the road in a ridiculous amount of clothing piled on top of their bodies. Christie bemoans the boosters from her implausibly sloped building, both soundtracked to music by Tune-Yards that evokes a circus act indicative of the farcical circumstances everyone is navigating as normal. Several news story parodies play in the background, including one advocating for the freedom of lower pay. The world, as Riley depicts it, is off its axis, so is it any wonder then that many feel lost? This sense of alienation is explored through Corvette who feels overwhelmed by her current circumstances. Where Sade seeks connection and purpose through a business venture barely concealed as a pyramid scheme, Corvette is a budding designer and the idea of people buying her clothes a way of sharing herself with the world and finding acceptance.  

It’s an engaging premise, yet as soon as the narrative settles, in true Boots Riley fashion, things must zag, and zag again. The fightback against Christie reaches right to the origins of the clothing supply chain, and with it, we’re plunged into sci-fi elements that send the second and third acts down a rabbit hole that comes with heavy exposition, but is balanced by the sheer level of ambition on display.

I Love Boosters is a feature that’s stuffed to the brim, and despite a strong ensemble cast, with so much going on, they feel slightly underserved in comparison to Palmer. At the same time, there are scenes that land like sudden wisps of ideas left unexplored, and it’s hard not to wish the time was given to deepening the film’s emotional relationships. The friction between Corvette and Sade is repeatedly hinted at, but the conflict and resolution doesn’t feel entirely earned. 

Funny, irreverent and chaotic, I Love Boosters is another showcase for the highly intelligent and uniquely imaginative vision of Boots Riley. For fans of Sorry to Bother You, it’s a real treat being let back into the mind of a filmmaker with such a clear, unapologetic point of view. Sharp and critical, and beneath it all, optimistic, Riley reminds us that solidarity is still possible and powerful in a world designed to distract and divide us – an important sentiment in these absurd times.