Boots Riley and LaKeith Stanfield Talk ‘I Love Boosters,’ Capitalism, Connection and Janet Jackson | EUR Exclusive WATCH
*Boots Riley is back in his beautifully bent bag with I Love Boosters, a surreal, Oakland-rooted heist story that looks like fashion chaos on the surface but quickly opens into something much bigger: labor, class, community, capitalism, and the way Black and Brown creativity keeps getting repackaged and sold back with a luxury markup. The […] The post Boots Riley and LaKeith Stanfield Talk ‘I Love Boosters,’ Capitalism, Connection and Janet Jackson | EUR Exclusive WATCH appeared first on EURweb | Black News, Culture, Entertainment & More.
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*Boots Riley is back in his beautifully bent bag with I Love Boosters, a surreal, Oakland-rooted heist story that looks like fashion chaos on the surface but quickly opens into something much bigger: labor, class, community, capitalism, and the way Black and Brown creativity keeps getting repackaged and sold back with a luxury markup.
The Neon film follows a crew of professional shoplifters who target a powerful fashion maven. In the press notes, the premise is summed up cleanly: “A crew of professional shoplifters take aim at a cutthroat fashion maven. It’s like community service.” The story is led by Keke Palmer as Corvette, alongside a stacked cast that includes Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, Demi Moore, Poppy Liu, LaKeith Stanfield, Will Poulter, and Don Cheadle.
During a conversation with EUR, Riley explained that the idea traces back nearly 20 years to The Coup’s song “I Love Boosters.” But the movie became necessary once he realized the story could connect a local hustle to a global system.
“That was the whole thing that made me realize it was a movie,” Riley said.
He noted that people often moralize “boosting,” but rarely discuss the industries being stolen from or the labor exploitation behind the products.
“We live in a world where theft is legal,” Riley said.
For Riley, the fashion industry offered a sharp lens. He pointed to the way style from Black communities, communities of color, and poor neighborhoods often rises up, inspires fashion houses, then returns to those same communities at prices they cannot afford.
“It was an interesting way to look at how capitalism works,” Riley said, adding that he wanted to bring “the exploitation of labor” into the conversation.
Stanfield, who previously worked with Riley on Sorry to Bother You, leaned into the emotional center of the film’s off-kilter world. When asked how he finds emotional truth inside a universe where reality is already bent, he began with a fittingly unexpected reference: Janet Jackson.
“One of the things I love about Janet Jackson’s music is that it’s all about love,” Stanfield said. “Every time I hear it, I just feel so good, and I just feel so full of feelings of love and connection.”
That answer turned out to be less detour than thesis.
Stanfield said his character represents the human attempt to connect, even when trauma makes that connection awkward, rocky or painful.
“I think at the center of all of us, we just want to connect,” he said. “Humor is very much a part of the exploration of love and connection, but so is pain.”
That mix feels very much in line with Riley’s creative signature. The press notes describe I Love Boosters as a mind-bending odyssey through high fashion and low-rent economies, moving from Oakland malls to factories in China. Under the comedy and visual madness, the film asks a blunt question: when culture, labor and survival are all being extracted, who exactly is doing the stealing?
Jill Munroe is a Los Angeles-bred entertainment journalist, producer, and host. Follow her socials @StilettoJill or visit JillMunroe.com. Catch her live M-Thu on KBLA Talk 1580 from 6PM to 7PM.
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The post Boots Riley and LaKeith Stanfield Talk ‘I Love Boosters,’ Capitalism, Connection and Janet Jackson | EUR Exclusive WATCH appeared first on EURweb | Black News, Culture, Entertainment & More.
