Cassius (LaKeith Stanfield) gets a job as a telemarketer, and once he learns to use his "white voice" (performed by David Cross), turns out to be a natural seller. Which gets him moved up the ladder to selling guns and human labor, instead of encyclopedia sets. But he moves up just as everyone else in the call center went on strike and leaves his friends behind. Then he learns Steve Lift, who owns the company has some really messed up plans and has to decide what he's going to do.
Oh, I just now realize the actor playing Steve Lift was Armie Hammer, so "messed up plans" might take on a whole different meaning. Rest assured, there was no cannibalism. There was definitely a lot of other stuff in the last half-hour I did not see coming, much of it disturbing, but not cannibalism.
I've been meaning to see this ever since I saw the trailer, I think when I went to see Deadpool 2. I'm glad I did. It's an interesting movie. I like the way Cassius is dropped into whatever room the person he's calling is in. Also the way that his success involves pretending to be someone he's not, while his girlfriend Detroit (Tessa Thompson) is trying to be a successful artist in her own way. Even when she's using her "white voice" (Lily James) to sell people her art, it's still her art. It's something she made, that has a personal message of importance to her. Whereas Cassius is selling stuff he doesn't care about, that he has no personal stake in, and is gradually losing everyone he cares about. All for a bunch of people that still only see his skin color. He's black, he must be good at rapping. Has to be.
That said, the part of Detroit's exhibit where she encourages people to throw objects at her while she recites a monologue from The Last Dragon made me pretty uncomfortable. I think I was worried it was going to get out of hand. Encouraging people to throw things at you doesn't seem like a good idea. Which makes me like Cassius, we don't get the idea of doing that for your art.
There's the whole motif of doors. Doors that are hidden, doors that can only be accessed by certain people, or if you know the code. Even in the bar, Danny Glover knows that the good liquor is hidden in a tiny bottle, inside a fake larger bottle of more generic whiskey. The key to that sort of success is to first know it's there, and then know how to get to it. The interesting part is the notion that even if someone can't get in any longer, they still know how, and they can pass it on. Cassius gets into the VIP lounge because Salvador tells him the password, even though Salvador no longer seems to go there. Even after Cassius has turned against Regalview and Steve Lift, he still has the code to break into Lift's place.
I don't quite know what that means. Knowledge can't be taken away once it's gained? There's no point to climbing into that rarefied air if you leave everyone else behind? Maybe that's why Salvador no longer goes into the VIP lounge. It wasn't worth going by himself, and all his friends would rather hang out in the regular lounge.
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