Boots Riley continues to be one of the most unique, dazzling, and socially incisive artists in cinema today. He picks up where he started with Sorry to Bother You to deliver a deconstruction of superheroes and capitalism, often at the same time. It’s unafraid to embrace the surreal and the hyperrealistic, and that heightened emotion- along with genuine, wild comedy- works in tandem with its intellectual mind so neither overwhelms the other.
The cast all kill it. There’s Goggins’ turn as a pathetic man using superheroes to justify his sense of meaninglessness. And then there’s Kara Young as Jones, a charismatic and wounded revolutionary who keeps going even when she loses friend after friend because she knows in her soul the way forward and her heart bleeds too damn much to just give up. She sells the impassioned, razor sharp monologues with earnest and righteous hurt, and visually and script wise these are some of the series’ masterworks. And even bit players like Kendrick Samson really shine, showing the shame and bitter anger in trying to change things from the inside, or even just trying to mitigate the damage.
The miniseries touches upon so much, so deftly. It sends up adult cartoons’ tendencies to get lost in existential crises and extended monologued and half heartedly throw in some catchphrases here and there- one scene in the finale might be aimed squarely at Rick and Morty’s wubba lubba dubb dubb. Another has an accurate and true autism metaphor. Another shows the heartbreaking tragedy of the American for profit health care system. Boots Riley takes no prisoners, and it results in an endlessly engrossing show to chew on for a long time after.
Review by JCVIP 4BlockedParent2023-08-09T05:21:09Z
Boots Riley continues to be one of the most unique, dazzling, and socially incisive artists in cinema today. He picks up where he started with Sorry to Bother You to deliver a deconstruction of superheroes and capitalism, often at the same time. It’s unafraid to embrace the surreal and the hyperrealistic, and that heightened emotion- along with genuine, wild comedy- works in tandem with its intellectual mind so neither overwhelms the other.
The cast all kill it. There’s Goggins’ turn as a pathetic man using superheroes to justify his sense of meaninglessness. And then there’s Kara Young as Jones, a charismatic and wounded revolutionary who keeps going even when she loses friend after friend because she knows in her soul the way forward and her heart bleeds too damn much to just give up. She sells the impassioned, razor sharp monologues with earnest and righteous hurt, and visually and script wise these are some of the series’ masterworks. And even bit players like Kendrick Samson really shine, showing the shame and bitter anger in trying to change things from the inside, or even just trying to mitigate the damage.
The miniseries touches upon so much, so deftly. It sends up adult cartoons’ tendencies to get lost in existential crises and extended monologued and half heartedly throw in some catchphrases here and there- one scene in the finale might be aimed squarely at Rick and Morty’s wubba lubba dubb dubb. Another has an accurate and true autism metaphor. Another shows the heartbreaking tragedy of the American for profit health care system. Boots Riley takes no prisoners, and it results in an endlessly engrossing show to chew on for a long time after.