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The new satirical comedy “Sorry to Bother You” is being hailed as one of this summer’s big hits. After debuting at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, critics have called the film bold, fascinating and “unapologetically brilliant.”
The movie tells the story of Cassius Green, an Oakland man who quickly learns how to climb the corporate ladder at a telemarketing firm. Writer and director Boots Riley joined “CBS This Morning” and discussed the use of “white voice” in the film.
“How Danny Glover’s character explains it in the [movie,] is that there is no real white voice, everything we’re doing is a performance,” Riley said. “In the movie, the white voice they use is this sort of mythical thing that says everything’s OK. And that’s like the performance of whiteness for some folks.”
Riley drew from his own time as a telemarketer for the Los Angeles Mission while writing the film. In that job, Riley often had to call more conservative residents of Orange County and would pretend to do a survey about crime in their area before asking for money to move the homeless population elsewhere.
“I felt OK about it because I was raising money for a homeless mission,” Riley said. “But I also felt terrible about it.”
Riley said that despite the movie being a dark comedy, there is a message in it.
“There is an optimism that comes through this movie,” Riley said. “Even though the world is messed up, there is a way to change it.”
“Sorry to Bother You” is in theaters now.
