I don’t even know how to start this review of I Love Boosters by Boots Riley. Named after the song of the same name, he made. At the same time, in his rap group The Coup, his ode to women who shoplift high-end fashion to sell in the hood takes on a completely different context in this film made over two decades later—starring Keke Palmer as a young fashion designer named Corvette, who leads a booster crew with her friends Sade, played by Naomi Ackie, and Mariah, played by Taylor Page, who all live in an absurdist version of the Bay Area. As they all struggle to make ends meet while Corvette still dreams of making it as a professional fashion designer, she decides to go after the famous and successful genius fashion designer Christie Smith (Demi Moore) after seeing that she stole one of Corvette’s designs.
Simple enough, right? We get the crew going after Smith’s designer fast fashion stores, which could work by itself. Still, the film gets into Chinese factories making fast fashion and how they are exploited, with the crew meeting Jianhu, played by Poppy Liu, who literally teleports from China to stop Smith’s company from causing health and bad working conditions in the factories. Most of the film deals with getting Corvette and her crew to understand that they can do more with their boosting than just gaining monetarily, they can contribute to something more that can help everyone to be less exploited.
Boots Riley’s cinematic and television work has been very blatant in its politics, pushing labor organizing and his leftist politics. Yet he’s also from hip hop, which in the past had a lot more leftist and progressive leanings in parts of the music and culture. Riley combines and mixes up visuals, sounds, and movie-making styles to convey that message in an enthralling method of storytelling. I feel Keke Palmer is actually underrated for just how good she is at being a film lead. In everything she’s in, she has an everyperson quality that’s up there with Tom Hanks. A lot of the film is through her perspective and eyes on what’s going on and the political change and growth. You want Corvette to win because of her performance.
Palmers’ best scenes are with Naomi Ackie’s Sade. They are the core relationship we see in this story, with them being best friends, and Sade’s dreams and goals being much more grounded as she has a family to think of, as well as always being supportive of Corvette’s plans at the cost of her own ideas. This conflict that grows as the film goes on does well to center the narrative as it goes through different political ideas and theoretical physics. You know things are going to come to a head as each actress plays their character well, in frustrations they each have at what’s going on in their world.
Demi Moore is fantastic as Christie Smith, the perfect avatar of the girlboss lean-in white woman capitalist business woman who sees herself as the underdog, but just as destructive and opaquely destructive as her white male counterparts she’s competing against. Moore seems to be having a ton of fun playing this woman with her at times, a cartoon villain level of reactions to Corvette and her Booster crew. Eiza González as Violeta, a worker at one of Smith’s stores that the crew befriends, who ends up opening the group to new ideas. I’m not used to seeing her get to play characters whose focus isn’t on how beautiful she is. Her character is cool and has some great sarcastic lines as they talk to our heroic foursome.
I feel the crew for this film is a major force for just how effective this whole film is. Production Designer Christopher Glass and Set Decorator Lizbeth Ayala do some great visual world-building with how everything in the characters’ interactions in the film. Places like Corvette’s home in an abandoned fast food restaurant and Christie Smith’s leaning apartment have such character and detail. They easily stick out in my mind after seeing the film weeks ago. Costume Designer Shirley Kurata crafts some great looks for each of the characters. Since the film is based on fashion, you expect it to look dope, and it clears that bar easily. Some very strong visuals, as the crew’s outfits provide a great canvas for the big cinematic screen. The fashion and sets match perfectly with smart color harmonies that do well to convey the mood and story being told. This isn’t enough words for it, but the Makeup team also kills in this project.
I don’t think I can fully put into legible writing how much and why I loved this film. For me, it’s the best film of 2026 so far. I don’t know if it’s going to stay that high as I continue to see more films through the year, but I know it’s going to still be one of my favorites. I Love Boosters shows Boots Riley’s growth as a filmmaker with more confident choices as a director. Keke Palmer adds another strong starring role to her filmography, and Naomi Ackie adds another MVP supporting role to hers as well. I Love Boosters is definitely worth seeing in cinemas.
Rating: A
Level of Enthusiasm: 100%
