I'm a Virgo review: Boots Riley goes big in a coming-of-age comedy that's fiercely original
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In some ways, Cootie (Jharrel Jerome) is a lot like most teenagers. He wants to hang out with friends, maybe earn some money to take his crush out on a date, and grow up to do something important with his life.
But Cootie isn't a normal teenager. He's a 13-foot-tall Black kid, one who's been hidden from the world for the last 19 years. With no sense of what it means to be a Black man (of any size) today, and no understanding of the myriad forces that keep his Oakland community in a perpetual state of struggle, Cootie soon realizes he must define himself before society does it for him. In his audacious new Amazon Prime Video comedy I'm a Virgo, writer-director Boots Riley (Sorry to Bother You) blends absurdist humor, dazzling visual metaphors, animation, and a blistering critique of capitalism to create a coming-of-age story that is unassailably original.
Amazon Studios Olivia Washington and Jharrel Jerome in 'I'm a Virgo'
Raised in secrecy by his loving but strict aunt Lafrancine (Carmen Ejogo) and uncle Martisse (Mike Epps), Cootie is ultimately discovered one night after sneaking out of the house to spy on some teens getting drunk at the park. In the universe of I'm a Virgo, a giant human being is more of a film-on-your-phone oddity than a complete impossibility, and Cootie is quickly befriended by Felix (Brett Gray), Scat (Allius Barnes), and Jones (Kara Young), who are happy to help him navigate the outside world. Lured into a local Bing Bang Burger by omnipresent TV ads, Cootie develops a crush on Flora (Olivia Washington), a flirty cashier who possesses Flash-like speed — and from then on, his days of hiding out are over.
Just as Martisse and Lafrancine feared, Cootie immediately becomes the target of people who want to exploit his novelty for their own gain. Local news stations deliver breathless reports about the "Twamp Monster" running rampant in Oakland's streets, and a slick talent agent/acai salesman (Ari Frenkel) sidles up to the giant teen at a bodega with promises of a lucrative pro sports deal.
Billionaire comic-book publisher Jay Whittle (Walton Goggins) — who now fights crime as a real-life version of his own Iron Man-like character, the Hero — decides to make Cootie the focus of the Hero's latest crusade to maintain law and order. But as a devoted fan of The Hero comics since childhood, Cootie still believes in the character's message that law enforcement is society's moral authority. When Scat says the Hero once locked up his cousin for selling weed without a license, Cootie wonders aloud why he chose to break the law in the first place. "It was either for shits and giggles or rent money," Scat scoffs. "I should ask him."
Amazon Studios Brett Gray, Kara Young, and Allius Barnes in 'I'm a Virgo'
The giant teen's journey to understanding American society and his place in it serves as the spine to I'm a Virgo's first season. As he did with his breakout debut film Sorry to Bother You, Riley, who directs all 7 episodes, places his characters in a hilariously bizarre, reality-adjacent world to deliver his searing social satire. The first gig the agent books for Cootie involves modeling a new line of streetwear called Asphalt Royalty. Coaching his client into a variety of racist poses — snatching a white kid's backpack; raising his hand to pimp slap a woman — the agent explains that the brand represents "the hustle of the streets, and the ability of street hustlas like you to rise above. Lemons to lemonade, cocaine to crack. You get it."
Felix and his friends are big fans of Parking Tickets, a grotesque stoner cartoon in which characters perform bleak monologues about human suffering before a bratty kid pops in with his nonsense catchphrase: "Boyoyoyoyoyoyoing!" And Hero creator Jay Whittle is so powerful, he never has to take the elevator — instead, the floors in the skyscraper where he lives and works move up or down around him to get him where he wants to go.
Jones, an avowed communist, keeps urging Cootie to join her activist network, which protests unfair evictions and other punitive social policies affecting their community. It's a tough sell for the 19-year-old, who's entranced by his newfound notoriety and earning power, and distracted by Flora, his first-ever girlfriend. But once Lafrancine and Martisse reveal their own radical agenda for their surrogate son's future, Cootie decides to take control of his destiny as an agent of change.
Amazon Studios Walton Goggins in 'I'm a Virgo'
Emmy winner Jerome, so fiercely heartbreaking in When They See Us, plays Cootie with a wonderfully funny mixture of innocence and teen swagger. Whether trying to flirt while paying for his burgers with a gigantic pile of pennies ("There's plenty more where that came from") or rallying his friends to take action against the city's greedy power company, Jerome makes his outsized character a hero who is earnest but never naïve.
Goggins — an incredible character actor who is woefully overdue for an Emmy, by the way — goes full gonzo as the Hero, a domineering, deeply unstable guy with a savior complex and more money than God. Young, a two-time Tony nominee, gives a striking performance as the resolute and melancholy Jones. A revolutionary who wants to empower people rather than lead them, Jones inspires her audience by immersing them in a kind of "psychic theater," surrounding them with live-action vignettes that illustrate concepts like the crisis of capitalism.
As fans of Sorry to Bother You know, Riley likes a shock ending, so it's hard to tell if the startling final image of I'm a Virgo signals the conclusion to Cootie's story or just a set-up for season 2. "This character is f---ed up, I know," admits a sheepish Cootie when Jones comes to see him modeling for Asphalt Royalty at the mall. "This piece has a creative intention of, um… It means something, you know?" Absolutely. I'm a Virgo is proof that in art, sometimes "f---ed up" and "meaningful" go together beautifully. Grade: A–
I'm a Virgo premieres June 23 on Amazon Prime Video.
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