Boots Riley has joined Elon Musk’s X Premium — for now.
The filmmaker has been going on an epic posting spree to promote “I Love Boosters,” his latest surreal satire, which released in theaters on Friday. Unfortunately, Riley learned that he’d been posting too much for an unverified account on the platform formerly known as Twitter.
“They got me. They blocked me from doing too many posts and quote tweets per day without being verified,” Riley posted. “So it was stopping me from promoting. Only allowing me to retweet. So now I’m temporarily verified.”
You can see the new Tuesday post below:
One look at Riley’s profile will show how seriously he’s been taking “I Love Boosters” social media promotion. The filmmaker has been vocal about wanting audiences to support his original satire, especially as it goes against the Disney “Star Wars” blockbuster “The Mandalorian and Grogu” at the box office.
“Theaters, tell folks coming in that ‘Mandalorian and Grogu’ are not the droids they are looking for,” Riley said on X.
Riley didn’t say why he didn’t have X Premium before, but it’s probably not hard to guess. The filmmaker, whose movies revolve around critiques of capitalism through his surreal comic lens, likely found himself among the wave of users who didn’t purchase a verified status after the social media platform made it a subscription service rather than a free marker for official accounts. Riley has been on record criticizing Elon Musk all the way back when “Sorry to Bother You” came out, well before he was as heavily criticized in the public eye as he is now.
“This idea of ‘cool capitalism’ is still capitalism,” Riley told Wired in 2018. “It doesn’t matter if Elon Musk quotes Nas.”
Without verification, it seems that Riley’s frequent posting has been flagged as bot behavior on X, meaning he’d have to purchase the blue checkmark himself (temporarily, he made a point to note). The filmmaker has responded to numerous posts of people saying they’re considering seeing “I Love Boosters” by encouraging them to go.
“Are you debating between tonight and this afternoon?” he asked one user who said they were on the fence. “See ‘I Love Boosters’ today!”
Social media users throughout the week have joked about summoning Riley to their own posts containing the words “I Love Boosters” as he fights to make sure his bold new vision doesn’t get lost in the theatrical conversation.
You can check TheWrap’s interview with Boots Riley below.
