海角大神

There鈥檚 a promising satirical idea embedded in 鈥淪orry to Bother You,鈥� but writer-director Boots Riley, the hip-hop artist making his directing debut, doesn鈥檛 quite know how to extricate it. He may not care. The film鈥檚 barbs about racism, capitalism, slavery, and cultural appropriation are so purposefully scattershot that the fact that none of it really hangs together is likely viewed as a badge of honor.

Cassius 鈥淐ash鈥� Green (Lakeith Stanfield) is living in his uncle鈥檚 Oakland, Calif., garage and is months behind in his rent. Rousing himself for a job interview with a telemarketing company, he soon lands work in their dungeonlike basement. Encased in a cubicle, he makes no headway until an older employee (Danny Glover) suggests he use his 鈥渨hite鈥� voice when pitching on the phone. (What鈥檚 being pitched are print encyclopedias, no less 鈥� one of the first signs that the world of this movie is heavily askew.)

His success at sounding white is so spectacular that soon Cash is breaking sales records and gets promoted upstairs as a 鈥減ower caller.鈥� Until this point, the film is reasonably creepy-funny, even if the satire, starting with the chief protagonist鈥檚 name, isn鈥檛 exactly subtle. I mean, Cash Green?

But once Armie Hammer enters the picture as the overlord of the nefarious corporation behind the telemarketing outfit, the movie loses its way in a welter of surreality. The corporation, heavily advertised in the media, is called Worry Free. It promises a hassle-free existence to all those who sign up for a lifetime labor contract in their factory, where one lives and dies in Orwellian regimentation. It鈥檚 a crackbrain dystopia 鈥� sci-fi slave labor 鈥� and Riley doesn鈥檛 have the imaginative reach (or the budget) to make much of his conceit.

Most of the film, which also has links to Spike Jonze鈥檚 "Being John Malkovich," plays like a variation聽on some of Spike Lee鈥檚 more scabrous racial fantasias like 鈥淏amboozled.鈥� It鈥檚 also very much in the vein of films like 鈥淕et Out,鈥� which also mixed horror, racial comedy, and social consciousness, though here to far less effect. Stanfield, who was memorable in 鈥淕et Out,鈥� is once again good, if a tad too zombified, and, as his activist girlfriend, Tessa Thompson has just the right amount of gumption. Grade:聽B- (Rated R for pervasive language, some strong sexual content, graphic nudity, and drug use.)聽 聽 聽 聽