As we are about to head into some oppressive summer weather, some levity is in order. My wish was that I wanted to review Scary Movie 6 and another film. However, with scheduling, this isn’t going to come to pass here. Maybe next time. Columnists have been editorializing on the bummer summer we are getting. All the songs are about heartbreak and wistful longing. Beloved shows are making their exit. A farewell in late night has rocked the public. And in that view, one really big film event needed to be addressed.
In 2019, a simple photo of an abandoned office space in Oshkosh, Wisconsin made its way onto online forums accompanied by foreboding captions. A few years later, a teen named Kane Parsons created a short film in which a camera operator gets lost in the jaundiced fluorescent glow of this nether realm only to die. Cut to 2026 and Kane (now 20) is the youngest director to hit number one at the box office. Welcome to Backrooms.
The premise is simple: Clark (Chitwetel Ejofor) owns a furniture store in California. Separated from his wife and in dire straits, he seeks the help of therapist Mary (Renate Reinsve) to deal with his frustrations. One night while sleeping at the store (tells you his financial situation), he investigates power surges and outages in the basement only to literally stumble onto the office labyrinth of mono-yellow wallpaper and warped objects that we learn mimics reality but is just slightly off. Not to give too much away, but as the trailer suggests “the more it remembers, the less it does.”
Parsons and writer Will Soodik build on the former’s videos, creating a mediation on how trauma affects memory. Each character brings to this space their pain and grievances, much like we all bring to our own workspace. Only here, these offices aren’t for jobs. An unsettling feeling comes over you that you have been here before. I recalled, upon watching, many finished basements I played in as a kid but nothing about this felt right as Clark or Mary navigated. You always get the sense something is lurking just out of frame. And God help you if that finds you. Because like all psychological damage, it is never quite leaves you.
From something horrific to some light ribbing at capitalism with true rizz, Boots Riley’s I Love Boosters comes on the heels of his last film 2018’s Sorry to Bother You. Where that film was the proof of concept, this is that process coming to fruition. Here Keke Palmer plays Corvette, the leader of a gang of shoplifters snatching high end fashion and selling it cheaper to under-privileged people in the community. She aspires to become a fashion designer, reading up on her favorite, Christie Smith (a deliciously horrible Demi Moore). When she finds out Christie stole an idea from her, Corvette lets out fury as she targets Smith’s boutiques. What follows is what I can only describe as an absurdist activist comedy, the likes I haven’t seen since the 70s.
Boots has really made the Anti-Devil Wears Prada. Art is to be revered but the commerce behind it he ruthlessly criticizes, and rightfully so. We get jokes about class, race and retail employee hell. Eliza González and Will Poulter play workers in Christie’s shops; the former, an attendant, the latter, a manager. And their scenes left me in stitches as much as it made me think about my own experiences. One slight gag about minimum breaks that had me howling in the theater at how real the concept felt.
There are too many details to discuss here that I could’ve written a dissertation. A third act involving teleportation and workers’ rights, skin suits and soul-sucking demons; Riley can’t stop his freak flag. And we are better for it. But unlike his first feature, he manages to stick the landing with a hopeful message that we have the power to make real change in the world that matters. And that is what we need right now. Let’s boost the future, collectively!
