Riley describes the film as "an absurdist dark comedy with aspects of magical realism and science fiction inspired by the world of telemarketing". The screenplay was inspired by his own time working as a telemarketer and telefundraiser in California and his need to put on a different voice to find success. In 2012, Riley finished the screenplay, and with no means to produce it, recorded an album of the same title with his band The Coup, inspired by the story. In 2014, the screenplay was originally published in full as part of McSweeney's issue 48. By late June 2017, it was announced that production would go forward on the film with Riley as director. In addition, Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Omari Hardwick, Terry Crews, Danny Glover, Steven Yeun, Armie Hammer, Forest Whitaker, David Cross, Lily James, Patton Oswalt, and Rosario Dawson were cast. At the same time, with a budget of $3.2 million, principal photography commenced, and wrapped in late July. Filming took place in Oakland, California.
The film stars Stanfield, Thompson, Hardwick, Crews, Glover, Yeun, Hammer, Whitaker, Cross, James, Oswalt, and Dawson. Stanfield lives it up as Cassius Green and swaggers into a staggering performance. Deplorable, hysterical, phenomenal. Stanfield runs away with Cassius, magnetic as he trains to hunt, brutally funny when high on greed, he turns on his "white" voice. Stanfield and Cross make an oddly perfect two sides of the same coin, as their dryly humorous performances throw contrast to the film's real comedic bread and butter, all of the eccentricities flying around them.
Riley roars back to the screen with the film, an almost two-hour show stuffed with dark humor, gross-out gags and one awesome performance by Stanfield. Riley has written a marvelously comedic script, with howlingly funny bits of dialogue. But perhaps its most magnificent accent is the delightful Stanfield in perhaps his best film yet. When the film focuses on Cassius' business and stays in the workplace, it is at its best, taking viewers on an exhilarating ride. But, oddly, the biggest problem with this film about excess and over indulgence is that it feels too excessive. Riley crafts a pithy script, laced with salacious one-liners, and he illuminates the best and the worst of the human race. While Riley's debut effort resembles The Wolf of Wall Street in its absurdist tone and progressively exhausting succession of wild occurrences, it's Do the Right Thing that is clearly the film's closest cousin. It is a good film but it's also polarizing. A viewer is either going to love it or hate it. The reason being not because the film itself is bad - it's an A+ effort on all fronts - but because the story is repulsive.
Simon says Sorry to Bother You receives:
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