Film Review: I LOVE BOOSTERS (2026): Boots Riley’s Latest is Overly Ambitious Zaniness That Never Quite Gels

I Love Boosters Review

I Love Boosters (2026) Film Review, a movie written and directed by Boots Riley and starring Keke Palmer, Naomie Ackie, Demi Moore, Rachel Walters, LaKeith Stanfield, Taylour Paige, Mahdi Cocci, Kara Young, Adam Devine, Don Cheadle, Robin Thede, Melissa Haas, Hannah Alline, Jason Ritter, Viggo Mortensen and Sarah Elaine.

Boots Riley’s I Love Boosters is the type of ambitious movie that doesn’t typically exist in the Hollywood studio system because of the huge risks the film takes as a work of art. It’s humorous and spot-on in terms of its basic message and acting, yet it’s lacking a distinct edge that would make it a fully successful entry in Riley’s distinguished career. Maybe the filmmaker’s Sorry to Bother You set a very high bar, or perhaps, I Love Boosters just needed another polish in the writing department. Either way, the film’s star, Keke Palmer is great and almost makes the new picture work despite its stylistic flaws.

This film begins with a club scene where Palmer’s character, Corvette, seems to be offering a handsome man (Mahdi Cocci) sex. She asks the guy what his shoe size is, implying she may want to know the size of something else as well. Corvette says she has her own apartment, so she takes the guy up there and -what do you know- she wants to sell him a pair of expensive shoes at a reduced price. Cocci’s character is not a happy camper but has to admit the shoes are a pretty great deal.

Corvette is a “booster.” She lifts clothes out of high-end stores with her stylish methods of theft alongside her fellow boosters. Boosters can have nightmares, however, in regard to their wild lifestyles that include day visions of a huge ball of bills rolling around. Taylour Paige is hysterical as Mariah, a booster who can hold her breath and look like a white woman (don’t ask) to fool store clerks into thinking she has money to spend while her fellow boosters “lift” clothes. Paige is easily one of the film’s true bright spots.

There are a number of supporting players in I Love Boosters, including an almost unrecognizable Don Cheadle as a guy named Dr. Jack who spends his time running a pyramid of wealth scenario that is goofy in and of itself. Demi Moore has the most intriguing role in the picture as Christie Smith who is the head of the clothing company that creates the outfits that the ladies regularly boost. Moore plays her part in such a way that she may be portraying her character as the “enemy,” yet the actress never stops being fascinating to watch in a part she is totally devoted to.

Just because she’s devoted to it, though, doesn’t make it a successful character. Boots Riley has underwritten Moore’s character in order to serve the mechanics of the offbeat storyline. On the other hand, Palmer’s character is overwritten to the max and is chock full of likable characteristics that define her a strong and independent woman despite the wrongdoings she commits over the course of the movie. It also helps the energetic Palmer is so great at what she does with the role.

I Love Boosters has so many players that it can’t handle developing them all sufficiently. Casualties include Naomi Ackie, Poppy Liu and Eiza González, all of whom put in the effort but come up short in terms of anything other than looking good on-screen. LaKeith Stanfield has an interesting series of scenes in the picture, too, in a recurring role that reminds us of the much more developed, Sorry to Bother You, which he also played in. Boots Riley has a lot to say but ultimately doesn’t say too much with I Love Boosters. He said a lot more in the aforementioned previous film.

I Love Boosters needed more than just sight gags and basic stereotypes to be a true success. It’s one humorous scene where one of our boosters overstuffs herself with clothes and looks like a sumo wrestler made out of clothes as she walks in the parking lot after her white friend serves as a decoy for the ladies to do their boosting. It’s quite another, though, to see Demi Moore working so hard in a part that doesn’t seem to do her character justice whether you like her at all or not. She’s one-dimensional as Riley may have intended, but because of that fact, there’s not as much at stake in the story as there could have been.

Look, I Love Boosters gets points for originality. Boots Riley has proven himself to be far above the material he presents here, though, with his previous work. Keke Palmer knocks her role out of the park in her best performance since Nope, but the movie is more of a commentary on the reasons people are haves and have nots than a satire of class differences. “Sorry to bother you,” but I Love Boosters needed a “boost” in the writing department to be wholly successful. What Riley needed was another writer to help him clear up some of the vague characterizations and clean up the film’s third act.

As it plays now, I Love Boosters is all style and only a wee bit of substance. It’s another example of a filmmaker trying to improve upon perfection with a bigger cast (and possibly a bigger budget) and coming up a bit short in the final analysis. That’s not to say there aren’t some moments of real genius in the new movie. They just don’t add up when one does the math of what it takes to make a film like this a true success. It’s a close call, but this one is ultimately a miss.

Rating: 6/10

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