Oakland director and hometown hero Boots Riley’s new film, “I Love Boosters,” pays homage to a complicated folk hero: the booster, a neighborhood figure who sells shoplifted goods at a steep discount. The topic feels particularly poignant in the Bay Area, where high-profile smash-and-grabs make headlines and drugstores put toothpaste behind lock and key.

But when asked about how crime trends influenced the film, Riley is quick to question their very premise, citing reporting on how drugstore executives overstated the effects of theft and police unions hire public relations firms to increase the perception of crime when data actually shows declines.

“It’s conspiracy theory, because people do conspire,” he told SFGATE. “What this does is to try to explain the problems of capitalism as the problems of the bad decisions of those impoverished.”

Dating back to his early work as a community organizer, through his rap career with the Coup and in his first film, “Sorry to Bother You,” and the TV series “I’m a Virgo,” Riley’s work is steeped in political activism. But what makes him such a compelling artist is that all the heady anticapitalist theory — of which there is plenty in “I Love Boosters” — is sneaked into a madcap package that’s as influenced by “Looney Tunes” and Parliament-Funkadelic as it is Karl Marx.

The film, which is inspired by a Coup song from 2006, begins with Corvette (Keke Palmer) and her cohorts in the Velvet Gang targeting a chain of high-end retailers in Oakland called Metro Designers. The brand is helmed by scientist-turned-designer Christie Smith (Demi Moore), who makes for a devilishly fun villain. The gang is framed as a group of modern-day “philanthropists.”

“These folks are people who would be admired for their grit and their humanity, and the community that they’re helping to hold together. I wanted to talk about that humanity, and talk about the fact that everyone’s thinking about their existence,” Riley said.

Although it starts with a simple heist premise, the movie spirals into science-fiction territory with a series of plot twists that expand the scope far beyond Oakland but are better left unspoiled. Similar to Riley’s previous work, there’s a surrealist slant to the whole affair. The Metro stores carry bright monochromatic inventory, the set designs burst with fantastic Michel Gondry-esque details, and a playful score by Oakland musician Tune-Yards adds to the wacky tone. Mix in effects that are a combination of stop motion and miniature work — one of the most notable scenes is a car chase set in the Westfield mall — and you have a signature look that’s uniquely Boots.

“It’s like an amusement park, because all of the effects are practical. We have miniature sets, they’re super small, and we have giant eyeballs and colorful runways,” LaKeith Stanfield told SFGATE. Stanfield starred in Riley’s last feature, “Sorry to Bother You.” He plays “Pinky Ring Guy” in “Boosters,” a character he struggles to describe without spoilers.

“I play a mythical creature that has existed since the beginning of time that seeks to harvest one’s soul through innovative means,” he said impishly.

Despite the size of Riley’s artistic vision, Poppy Liu, who plays Velvet Gang associate Jianhu, said Riley was actually an understated figure on set.

“His mind and his ideas and his stories are so like larger than life, and obviously he’s so brilliant,” Liu told SFGATE. “But in a room — other than the size of his hat — he’s just is kind of like happy to be there, and a wallflower.”

Eiza González, who plays Velvet Gang partner Violeta, was impressed by Riley’s ability to let actors guide their own characters.

“As a director, he’s never singular — and that’s good. Not as a persona but in the conveying of an idea,” González told SFGATE. “He’s not telling you that you need to be doing this. He’s conveying an energy, a desire, a vibe. It makes it easy for you because you don’t feel tied into a specific idea.”

Although the film veers into fantastic territory, it never strays from its anticapitalist themes. When asked what she hopes audiences get out of the film, Liu doesn’t mince words.

“Capitalism is a cancer that’s ruining the world, and oligarchs need to come down, and the working-class struggles to become a global movement,” she said.

Those goals may seem lofty, but as Riley tells it, they may be closer than we think, citing the Minnesota general strike as a monumental moment and the culmination of broader labor movements.

“From 2020 to 2024, we had the largest strike wave in U.S. history since the 1970s. Thousands of strikes and work stoppages all over, many of them about wages and health benefits, but some more radical about police abuse in the area,” Riley said.

The film is set to screen in 2,000 theaters opening weekend, by far the biggest opening of Riley’s career. Many in the audience will be there for the Trojan horse marketing move of framing it as an urban heist film, others for the maximalist off-the-wall aesthetic. But for Riley, the goal is ultimately to inspire a mass militant radical labor movement that can wrestle power away by going after capital.

“I want [audiences] to feel like they need to join that movement. … They need to join organizations, campaigns and make it happen. And it’s our only hope,” he said.