I Love Boosters

I Love Boosters is a 2026 American crime comedy film written and directed by Boots Riley, and starring Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, Poppy Liu, Eiza González, LaKeith Stanfield, Will Poulter, Don Cheadle, and Demi Moore.

The film premiered at the 2026 South by Southwest Film & TV Festival on March 12, 2026, and will be released theatrically in the United States by Neon on May 22. It received positive reviews from critics.

In a surreal version of the San Francisco Bay Area, a group of shoplifters, known as “boosters”, take aim at a cutthroat fashion maven after she steals their designs.

• Keke Palmer as Corvette
• Naomi Ackie as Sade
• Taylour Paige as Mariah
• Poppy Liu as Jianhu
• Eiza González as Violeta
• LaKeith Stanfield as Pinky Ring Guy
• Will Poulter as Grayson
• Demi Moore as Christie Smith
• Don Cheadle as Dr. Jack
• Jason Ritter as Upcoming Standing Community
• Eric André as Futuristic Police Tank Cop
• Adam DeVine as Christie’s Boy Toy
• Kara Young as a Crying Black Mother
• Kerris Dorsey as Jamie
• Kate Berlant as the voice of Mall Manager on P.A.
• Viggo Mortensen as the voice of Documentary Narrator - Heine Schlumpf
• Jermaine Fowler as Based Young Dude

The film is written and directed by Boots Riley, and is based on the song "I Love Boosters!" by his group The Coup. Aaron Ryder and Andrew Swett are producing the film on behalf of Ryder Picture Company. Financing came from Neon and Waypoint Entertainment. In October 2024, the ensemble cast was reported to include Keke Palmer, Demi Moore, LaKeith Stanfield, Naomi Ackie, Eiza González, Poppy Liu, Taylour Paige and Will Poulter. Melissa Barrera was offered a role personally by Riley but had to decline owing to her scheduling conflicts; Barrera herself stated it would've intended to be her comeback role after being blacklisted from the film industry. Principal photography began on November 7, 2024, in Atlanta, with Natasha Braier serving as the cinematographer.

I Love Boosters had its world premiere as the opening film at the South by Southwest Film & TV Festival on March 12, 2026. It is also the opening film on May 7 for the 2026 Seattle International Film Festival. Neon has scheduled the United States release for May 22, 2026, with simultaneous releases in Canada and Australia. In November 2025, Riley revealed that, like his previous film Sorry to Bother You, international distribution of I Love Boosters would be handled by Focus Features and Universal Pictures.

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 94% of 34 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "A raucous capitalist critique, I Love Boosters careens through the carefully-controlled chaos of writer-director Boots Riley's imagination to deliver a comedy that's as funny as it is thought-provoking." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 73 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

• I Love Boosters at IMDb