Neon Picks Up Boots Riley’s Shoplifting Comedy

It's been six years since audiences were treated to Boots Riley's wild directorial debut Sorry to Bother You. The satire about telemarketers - which also covered everything from racism to labor strikes to, uh, animal-human hybrids - got great reviews and made him an in-demand creative. But the idiosyncratic artist didn't jump at the next big project offered to him. Instead, he took his time, eventually developing the Prime Video comedy series I'm a Virgo. (In between, he also started feuds with Spike Lee and Martin Scorsese on X, formally known as Twitter.)

Neon, which has picked up the last five winners of the Palme d'Or, will finance Riley's new film I Love Boosters. Academy Award nominee and frequent collaborator LaKeith Stanfield will star once again. He'll be joined by Keke Palmer (Nope), Naomi Ackie (Blink Twice) and Demi Moore (The Substance). The film follows a group of high-end shoplifters out to ruin a legendary fashion icon. That's a fairly vague description, but expect plenty of Riley's trademark absurdity and incisive social commentary.

I Love Boosters has no release date yet, but Neon will co-produce with Ryder Picture Company and Savage Rose Films. It's already one of my most anticipated films of the next few years.

About Kip Mooney

Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.