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***
Vladimir Lenin <a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/staterev/ch05.htm">quoted</a> Karl Marx as saying, “The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them.” When the modern oppressed looked deep inside themselves, much as the Ghostbusters <a href="https://youtu.be/2zhDfUAQSbs?si=wSyhYDRhh6Tbft9x&amp;t=101">did</a>, they tried to do good and instead failed, choosing <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/20/style/grown-up-theater-kids.html?unlocked_article_code=1.llA.kN9_.Oc99OV8afaU3&amp;smid=url-share">theater kids</a> rather than the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. And if there’s one thing theater kids are going to do, it’s theater, which sometimes involves making films.
“I Love Boosters” is such a film, one <a href="https://x.com/alexchristy17/status/2055314091938390107">described</a> by “The Daily Show’s” Jordan Klepper as “&#8217;Pee-wee’s Big Adventure&#8217; if it were directed by Karl Marx with a bunch of Molly in the background.” It plunges you into a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1xZegSgN8w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">surreal world</a> centered on a group of boosters (people who steal clothes and resell them at a price significantly lower than retail) and their leader’s infatuation with fashion designer Christie Smith (Demi Moore). 
The Velvet Gang, as the group of boosters is known, regularly steals massive amounts of clothing from Smith’s stores. Then, the gang’s leader Corvette (Keke Palmer) along with henchwomen Sade (Naomi Ackie) and Mariah (Taylour Paige) sell the wares in apartments redesigned as shops and on the street, helping the less successful among us stay fashion forward. In that way, they’re like the Robin Hoods of haute couture, or at least that’s what the message seems to be. 
What I have just described boasts a <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/i_love_boosters#critics-reviews">92%</a> average from film critics on Rotten Tomatoes, though it only scores a <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/i_love_boosters/reviews/all-audience">72%</a> average with the actual audience. That’s impressive for a movie that leaves most people saying “huh?” when you tell them you went to see “I Love Boosters.” It’s so disjointed that even people who wanted to see it can barely get it out of C- territory. (As verified reviewer Ben wrote, “No idea what I just watched. A waste of time. I should have walked out of the movie and stared at a puddle of water instead, would have been more entertaining.&#8221;)
When your anti-capitalist/pro-communist film is only hitting with the bourgeoisie and not the proletariat, well, congratulations, I suppose, because that’s usually the target audience for communism. Though the bourgeoisie in “I Love Boosters” solely consists of billionaire Smith, with everyone else being part of the proletariat, except for a group of people who wear literal skin suits and a demon who sucks the souls from people in a manner that I will not be describing here. Suffice it to say, though, that the literal demon is a good guy, somehow. 
There’s also Jianhu (<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-miseducation-of-poppy-liu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Poppy Liu</a>), a rival booster from a Chinese sweatshop where Smith’s clothing is made, though she’s not trying to sell fast fashion to the victims of the Chinese Communist regime, but instead lobbies for better pay and labor practices inside the sweatshop. This, of course, is also a very American communist bourgeoisie approach to Chinese atrocities, except actually they tend to lobby for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/29/business/economy/nike-coca-cola-xinjiang-forced-labor-bill.html?unlocked_article_code=1.llA.bu6i.W5tmRya7K4xZ&amp;smid=url-share">continued atrocities</a>. Not that the pro-communist leanings of the movie are any more obvious while watching it than they would be while staring at a puddle of water. 
Mostly, it’s just a film that centers on Corvette’s anger with Smith, who refers to the Velvet Gang as “low class, urban b*tches,” which, okay? I’m not a communist, so perhaps I’m missing something, but theft isn’t something I associate with the middle or upper classes. 
If I were a communist, though, I could argue that the Velvet Gang members are merely victims of the capitalist system of oppression that prevents them from rising up into the ranks of the professional managerial class and stealing from the proletariat, and also that “urban” is just thinly veiled racism. (Fair, just don’t ask the modern communists why identity politics is <a href="https://jacobin.com/2025/01/elite-identity-politics-professional-class">actually bad for the cause</a>, comrade.) 
Also, Corvette is aggrieved because she failed to become a famous fashion designer, mostly because she’s afraid to give it a shot, other than posting some designs on Instagram, one of which Smith may have stolen. This is the most unintentional and hilariously revealing insight into the modern American theater kid’s envious rage against capitalism that the film offers, and would strike a blow to its premise if theater kids had any conception of irony. 
In any case, Corvette continues along, planning one final giant heist with her fellow gang members plus Jianhu, who has a teleporter/deconstructor/accelerator machine (don’t ask). They succeed. Chinese factory workers go on strike, win their concessions from the Chinese Communist Party, and get improved pay and working conditions in their sweatshop instead of being murdered for going against the paramount leader. This inspires global protests, the theater kids’ primary mode of communication. Presumably, there’s a glorious uprising that happens sometime after the movie ends. 
There may have been a post-credits Easter egg detailing the final five-year plan, but I wouldn’t know, as I didn’t stay for the full credits to roll. Granted, I am not the target audience for “I Love Boosters.” Critics are known for loving hot garbage, so they get a pass, but there are four- and five-star audience reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. There is praise for the anti-capitalist message. Several reviews mention love for the cast. Some people seem to genuinely love the rollicking, disjointed, confusing “plot.” That’s fine. We’re a pluralist country, and I used to pretend to like “Eraserhead.” I’m not totally innocent here. 
But as an anti-capitalist commentary, does it work? This is where I am sad to report that yes, it does, at least partly, and not in its intended way. Because if this is the type of art that capitalists, albeit the faux communist flavor of capitalists, are funding, then it may be time to eviscerate the bourgeoisie theater kids and bring forth a glorious uprising of whatever class it is that would rather stare into a puddle of water.
***
Rich Cromwell is a writer living in Northwest Arkansas. He produces the Cookin’ Up a Story podcast, which you can listen to <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cookin-up-a-story/id1624969096" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>. You can also follow him on X: <a href="https://x.com/rcromwell4">@rcromwell4</a>.

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Leftist Hollywood Critics Drool Over Bizarre Anti-Capitalist Movie. Audiences Aren’t Buying It.

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Leftist Hollywood Critics Drool Over Bizarre Anti-Capitalist Movie. Audiences Aren’t Buying It.