I Love Boosters

“I Love Boosters confidently navigates the complex territory of where race, gender, and class intertwine.”

Title: I Love Boosters (2026)
Director: Boots Riley 👨🏾🇺🇸
Writer: Boots Riley 👨🏾🇺🇸

Reviewed by Jonathan 👨🏾🇺🇸

Technical: 4.5/5

Boots Riley’s work exemplifies the kind of stories that Mediaversity champions. In Sorry to Bother You (2018) and Amazon show I’m a Virgo (2023), Riley shows the social context of people of color, workers, or women, and the specific conflicts they face in America’s capitalist society. I Love Boosters continues that tradition, featuring a group of women—all African American, Latina, or Asian—who fight a cruel white fashion mogul, Christie Smith (Demi Moore).

In film school, you routinely sit through bright, colorful, twee movies that attempt artistry but fail to connect to the real world. But I Love Boosters manages to do both, combining magical realism and science fiction through an appealing, pop art lens. It’s the kind of technical feat that deserves more attention than Riley generally gets.

The film follows Corvette (Keke Palmer), a woman who is stalked by a giant rolling ball of paper that encompasses every bill she hasn’t paid. A luxury high-rise apartment building slants to the side—clearly poking fun at San Francisco’s real-world Millennium Tower—and keeps characters literally on edge. Brilliantly, a sci-fi gadget helps to explain the disastrous consequences of fast fashion and its waste stream.

Meanwhile, it all looks wonderful, like a giant art installation playing on screen with catchy moments destined to become memes and GIFs. It’s backed up by a fantastic soundtrack, including perfect uses of Prince and MC5. The narrative remains engaging throughout and will undoubtedly spark conversations after the film ends.

Gender: 5/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? YES

I Love Boosters sails through this category, making women the leads and avoiding stereotypes. It depicts the unique economic situations that women encounter, and the love story doesn’t fall into the “I need a man” cliché. Rather, romance is treated as a complicated choice. The script also deeply understands female friendships, in all their nuances and distinct dramas. And the fact that a woman billionaire uses casual sexism—calling our heroes “low-class urban bitches,” for example—smartly shows the hypocrisy that comes with many “girlboss” facades. There’s a lot of gender commentary to unpack in I Love Boosters, and it hits the mark.

Race: 5/5

I Love Boosters confidently navigates the complex territory of where race and class intertwine. From having the characters face Christie’s hostile microaggressions to showing Chinese garment workers being exploited by the fast fashion industry, Riley clearly telegraphs his concerns. All the while, he sets aside shallow colorblind casting to harness characters’ unique racial identities, articulating how a single conflict can discriminate against several communities in different ways.

Bonus for LGBTQ: +0.50

In a brief scene, a bisexual succubus articulates the inherent difficulty in making human connections in modern society. I never thought I’d type those words.

Behind the camera, Palmer and co-star Poppy Liu are queer actors in leading roles.

Mediaversity Grade: A+ 5.00/5

A triumph that proves that inclusive filmmaking can be both virtuosic and ambitious, I Love Boosters takes viewers on a hilarious, surreal critique of capitalism. It centers women of color without ever letting them fall into lazy stereotypes, making for essential viewing that kicks ass on screen and will keep you talking about it long after.

Like I Love Boosters? Try these other titles that critique capitalism.

Grade: ALiJune 16, 2026Great for: Race, Great for: Gender