In 2006, hip-hop group The Coup released their fifth album, Pick A Bigger Weapon. While a modest commercial success, it was one of the year’s best-received rap albums. Today, the project is more relevant than ever, but not because of its music: The group’s Boots Riley has written and directed I Love Boosters, a new movie based on the Pick A Bigger Weapon song of the same name.

This isn’t the first time Riley’s music and filmmaking have intersected. In the early 2010s, he completed a draft of a screenplay, for a film called Sorry To Bother You. In 2012, The Coup released an album of the same name, inspired by the script, and years later, the original film was finally made, released in 2018.

Ahead of the new movie’s debut, keep reading for everything you need to know.

Plot

An official synopsis reads, “A crew of professional shoplifters take aim at a cutthroat fashion maven. It’s like community service.”

Riley told Variety of the song that inspired the film:

“The stories I told in that song happened in the early ’90s. Folks who bought from boosters were actually setting the trends. Styles from Black neighborhoods ended up being part of the marketing for these brands. So I was thinking about that, but I was also thinking about the idea of creativity under a system where survival isn’t guaranteed. Survival isn’t only just food and shelter. Survival is being able to help create the world around us.”

Cast

The movie stars Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, Poppy Liu, Eiza González, LaKeith Stanfield, Will Poulter, Demi Moore, Don Cheadle, Jason Ritter, Kara Young, Kerris Dorsey, Eric André, Kate Berlant, and Adam DeVine.

Speaking with Variety, Riley remembered when he told Palmer he wanted her to be her natural self in the film, saying:

“She said to me, ‘Look. Everybody always says they want to do this with me, but then when we make it on set, they want that cadence that guarantees a certain kind of comedy.’ I was like, ‘That’s not what I want to do.’ To me, being more real makes the funny parts funnier and the sad parts sadder. I guess when people hire Keke Palmer, they want a specific thing. She hasn’t been able to show these other aspects of herself.”

Release Date

The film is set to premiere in theaters on May 22.

Trailer

Check out the I Love Boosters teaser trailer below.