Boots Riley has unleashed the first teaser trailer for I Love Boosters, the long-awaited follow-up to his beloved directorial debut, Sorry to Bother You.
The musician-turned-filmmaker, who also delivered the surreal comedy miniseries I’m a Virgo in 2023, returns to the big screen later this year with his second film, I Love Boosters. The sci-fi comedy stars Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, Poppy Liu, and Eiza González as the Velvet Gang, a group of shoplifters who steal clothes to sell them at discounted prices. They’re joined by a stacked supporting cast that includes LaKeith Stanfield, Will Poulter, Don Cheadle, and Demi Moore.
The action-packed teaser trailer offers a glimpse of what to expect from the movie, which is being distributed by Neon in North America on May 22. Palmer portrays Corvette, the leader of the Velvet Gang, as they upend the world of high fashion. “I shop here a lot, and I feel like I should have it all,” Palmer’s character says at the start of the teaser. “I just want to take it all home, heat it up and shoot it out my eyes. I just feel like, ‘Give it to me. It’s mine anyway.’”
I Love Boosters, which Riley also penned the script for, (the title of the film shares the name with a song from his band The Coup), is set to premier at Southwest Film and Television Festival next month. “Boots has created another wildly original and boundary-pushing vision that’s deliciously unpredictable,” teased SXSW vp of film and TV Claudette Godfrey. “We can’t wait for our audience to be sucked into his singular, subversive world where razor-sharp social commentary meets fearless, surreal storytelling and eye-popping imagery—all powered by a ridiculously stacked cast of some of the most talented actors on the planet.”
Upon the arrival of the teaser trailer, Riley told fans to help spread it far and wide. “If you like this trailer—I need your help on this,” he wrote on social media. “Not just retweeting and reposting, I need you to—seriously—text and email this to people. If you haven’t talked to someone in a while. Use this as your excuse.”
Check out the teaser trailer up top.