For a provocative and surreal look at race, class and corporate America, we head to 2018’s Sorry to Bother You. 20-something African-American Oakland resident Cassius “Cash” Green (Lakeith Stanfield) struggles to eke out a living.

Cash’s prospects improve when he gets a job at a telemarketing firm called RegalView but he initially finds it difficult to make sales. However, after co-worker Langston (Danny Glover) tells him to use his “white voice”, Cash quickly ascends to the level of “Power Caller”, a promotion that alters his life in a mix of ways.

A mix of absolutely bonkers ways, though Sorry takes a while to get to get to that level. Though the film leans toward a satirical sense of heightened reality from the start, it still manages to keep its feet on the ground for its first act.

Actually, even past that point, Sorry doesn’t go completely over the edge. While it gets weirder and weirder, much of it remains reality-based.

That’s when Sorry fares best, and I like its comedic bent. While it easily could be a mopey cautionary tale of a poor black guy gone wrong, it manages too much dark humor to go down that path.

During these moments, Sorry manages to explore issues like race and economic instability in a clever, insightful manner, and it makes some fun choices along the way. For instance, when Cash calls a client, we see him physically fall into that person’s room. Of course, we know this isn’t real, but it adds a layer of visceral impact to a standard phone call sequence.

Stanfield stands out among the cast as our lead, mainly due to the unassuming tone he gives to Cash. We get a good sense for the role and sympathize with him as he goes through his crazy adventure.

And insane matters do become, starting with Cash’s promotion to “Power Caller”. That’s when the movie starts to lose touch with reality and it begins to disconnect from the viewer.

Again, I don’t want to convey that the film collapses at that point, for much of it still works well. I just think that it goes too far from the real world and its surreal moments undercut the satire.

To say much more would threaten spoilers, but suffice it to say that the film’s path eventually goes completely bonkers. These choices give the movie a unique vibe, but they’re so over the top and absurd that they harm the flick in the end.

Even with these flaws, I still think Sorry offers a clever, compelling experience. It’s a big, sprawling mess of a movie but it packs in so much spark and satire that I ultimately forgive its excesses.

Sorry to Bother You appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. I found an attractive transfer here.

Sharpness seemed fine. Only mild instances of softness materialized in a few interiors, so I viewed most of the film as a tight, distinctive image.

No issues with jaggies or moiré effects occurred, and I witnessed no edge haloes. Print flaws failed to mar the presentation.

In terms of colors, Sorry went with a teal feel accompanied by orange/amber. This was expected from a modern film, so it’s unoriginal but typical of 2018. The hues worked fine within those limitations.

Blacks seemed deep enough, and shadows showed good smoothness. I felt pleased by this well-rendered image.

In addition, the movie’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack fit the material. It used all the channels to give us music, and appropriate effects cropped up around the spectrum in a convincing manner.

Those elements meshed together in a concise way and helped give us a vivid sense of places and events. Beyond parties and some “action scenes” toward the end, not a ton of activity popped up, but when the track used the surrounds and sides in a lively way, it did so well.

Audio quality satisfied. Music was bright and bold, while speech came across as natural and distinctive.

Effects seemed accurate and dynamic, with clean highs and deep lows. The track worked fine for the material.

A few extras fill out the set, and the main attraction comes from an audio commentary with writer/director Boots Riley. He offers a running, screen-specific look at story/characters, cast and performances, sets and locations, music, influences and related areas.

If you hope to get a good discussion of the movie’s themes and meaning, you won’t find it here, as Riley largely sticks with filmmaking nuts and bolts. He does so in a fairly efficient manner, but I can’t claim he gives us a lot of fascinating details, and I wish he would’ve explored the movie’s deeper elements in a more satisfying way.

Next comes Beautiful Clutter, an 11-minute, 55-second reel with Riley. He discusses cast and characters, aspects of his pre-film career and their influence on his directorial work, locations, and aspects of the flick’s development. Riley touches on a good variety of topics in this piece that compliments the commentary.

Two clips appear under Promotional Trailers: “The Cast of Sorry to Bother You” (1:52) and “The Art of the White Voice” (2:03). Across these, we hear from actors Lakeith Stanfield, Armie Hammer, Tessa Thompson, Jermaine Fowler, Patton Oswalt and David Cross.

Both clips live up to their titles in that they tell us little about the movie and just act to sell it. However, while “Cast” is a waste of time, Oswalt and Cross make “Voice” entertaining.

Next comes a Gallery. Across its 24 frames, it mixes shots from the film, promotional stills and images from the set. It seems wholly mediocre.

The disc opens with ads for Widows and Bad Times at the El Royale. We also find the trailer for Sorry as well as Sneak Peeks for Super Troopers 2.

A second disc adds a DVD copy of Sorry. It includes the same extras as the Blu-ray.

Bold and ambitious, Sorry to Bother You often hits the mark. However, it goes too far into surreality for its own good and this tendency takes away some of its impact. The Blu-ray brings positive picture and audio along with a decent set of supplements. While it fails to achieve all its goals, Sorry seems stimulating and clever enough to deserve a look.