You wanna see a great movie? Watch Sorry to Bother You, Boots Riley’s anti-capitalist, pro-union, fantastical sci-fi set perfectly in the current hellscape we call the good ol’ USofA. The soundtrack alone is pure fire.

Black Buck is less fantastical, more reality-bound satire, but also centers on the problems of trying to achieve “success” within a system that was never really designed to offer anything of non-monetary substance to anyone and especially not to anyone with skintones darker than a paper bag. It even centers on sales as the talent to be exploited. Sadly, unlike Sorry, the end of this tale doesn’t encourage getting rid of a failed system but is instead a rallying cry for POC to embed ourselves into the corporate entities that are busy destroying things faster and faster in pursuit of those benjamins so we can collect a few on our way to global collapse.

But it’s a good story, damnit. I found myself riding along with Buck as he descended deeper & deeper into being his absolute worst (and therefore his company’s best performer) and enjoying the side characters (at least those that weren’t absolutely vile, but really not unbelievable racists) as they whirled along with a plot that was wildly all over the place at times, but still – to me anyway – pretty captivating in that it kept me going with a “now what’s going to happen?” attitude. Sure I wanted more politically out of this, but, alas, that was not to be. I just had to enjoy it for what is was – a rollicking yarn.

Sometimes a story is just a story and that is just fine. Entertain me.