Director: Boots Riley

Stars: Keke Palmer, Demi Moore, Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, LaKeith Stanfield

Following debut ‘Sorry to Bother You’, American writer-director Boots Riley’s second picture is another anarchic gonzo satire on capitalism and fashion. Corvette (Palmer), Mariah (Paige), and Sade (Ackie) are the Velvet Gang, a trio of boosters (shoplifters) who steal clothes from high-end stores – especially those owned by designer-mogul Christie Smith (Moore) – then sell them on to make ends meet. Smith regularly appears in the media talking about her fashion philosophy. Corvette, an aspiring fashion designer, admires Christie’s work if not her ruthless business approach. As the Velvet Gang achieve greater notoriety, and the shops struggle to curtail the theft, Smith derides the boosters on TV as ‘low-class urban bitches’. Then when Corvette discovers that Christie has stolen one of her designs, the gang plot revenge. Also in the candy-coloured mix is a romance with a demon, a seized teleporter originally intended to cut down on shipping costs, and a strike in a Chinese factory, all set to a musical accompaniment by Tune-Yards that is pitched somewhere between Marvin Hamlisch at his most 60s screwball, and a bricolage avant-garde noise project. The film is fizzing with ideas, if a little too busy – LaKeith Stanfield’s ‘Pinky Ring Guy’ feels a bit surplus to requirements – but “too busy” is Riley’s thing really.

David Willoughby

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