Review: ‘I’m a Virgo’ offers an entirely unique look at superheroism, satire, absurdism and social issues

There are plenty of film and television projects that come along and try to convince audiences that they’ve never seen anything like it before. In certain cases, it turns out to be entirely misplaced, but nobody can deny that Boots Riley has delivered an episodic original the likes of which has never been seen before with I’m a Virgo, which premieres on Prime Video on June 23.

Trying to distill the plot down to a straightforward explanation barely does it even the merest hint of justice, although that’s to be expected when its creator, director, writer, and executive producer burst onto the filmmaking scene with the razor-sharp surrealist comedy Sorry to Bother You half a decade ago, with his latest project further establishing his credentials as one of the industry’s most singular voices.

Primetime Emmy-winning When They See Us star Jharrel Jerome (who also executive produces) stars as Cootie, a 13-foot tall teenager raised in Oakland and hidden from the world. He knows next to nothing about the outside world other than what he’s been told by Carmen Ejogo’s Lafranchise and Mike Epps’ Martisse, but it doesn’t take long for him to question everything he’s ever known after forging a friendship with three local kids.

As well as Brett Gray’s Felix, Kara Young’s Jones, and Allius Barnes’s Scat as the aforementioned trio, Olivia Washington’s fast food worker Flora emerges as a potential love interest, too, although she’s got a secret of her own that’s been kept quiet her entire life. Threading it all together is Walton Goggins’ Jay Whittle, a comic book savant who also moonlights as a hero known literally as The Hero, protecting the streets at his own discretion clad in a suit of Iron Man-esque armor.

That’s the basic setup of I’m a Virgo, but Riley splinters off in countless different directions and manages to make every single one of them work. There’s a coming-of-age tale, mythological undertones about giants being persecuted throughout history, a superhero-inspired origin story, the trials and tribulations of first love, biting social and economic satire deeply rooted in society’s current issues, absurdist comedy, genuinely heartfelt motions, and irreverent animated asides, which sounds a lot to take in.

It can be, but if you get on the same wavelength as I’m a Virgo – something that’s easily achievable by the end of the first episode – then one of the best TV shows of the year awaits. Veering from hilarious to blisteringly incendiary on a dime, there’s barely any stones left unturned by the time the series reaches its conclusion, with Riley making a complete and utter mockery of the belief that throwing everything including the kitchen sink into the mix runs the risk of self-indulgent disaster.

Cootie’s size is established in an opening prologue, which segues into visual gags aplenty as we become accustomed to both his unique living situation and the reasons why he’s been kept shrouded his entire life. The most important thing that’s repeatedly reiterated is that his gigantic dimensions aren’t his defining characteristic, with I’m a Virgo somehow making “it’s what’s on the inside that counts” one of its central themes without ever veering into cloying sentimentality.

His number one motivation is finding out for himself what’s out there, rather than being told by Lafrancine and Martisse, although it doesn’t take long for skepticism to set in. Watching television is his primary method of scratching the surface of what dwells beyond the confines of his oversized home, which sets the stage for I’m a Virgo to take the first of many shots at rampant capitalism, the false veneer of commercialism, and the ways in which the media is used as a weapon to try and temper with expectations across the socioeconomic sphere.

Of course, the fact that these observations are being made in a series with high production values funded by a multi-billion dollar corporation is well worth noting, but Riley’s intention is never to tear down the establishment without at least attempting to hold it accountable, especially when he’s officially become part of it by taking Amazon’s money to tell his story. It’s borderline meta when you think about it in those terms, but in the grand scheme of things, it only serves to add another delicious layer of subtext onto I’m a Virgo.

As soon as the city finds out there’s a 13-foot tall local living in their midst, dollar signs appear in the eyes of those in a position of power. Cootie is torn between selling out for the money or sticking by the first friends he’s ever made, and juxtaposing a hulking teen spending hours in the same position to sell clothes to the masses with a cult appearing on the scene to deem him the fulfillment of a long-held prophecy – all while he continues getting up to typical adolescent shenanigans in his downtime – underlines the staggering number of plates Riley manages to spin consistently without letting any of them drop and shatter.

From news stations running rampant with tales of the “Twamp Monster” to money-hungry talent agents getting a glint in their eye, via Goggins’ self-aggrandizing belief that he needs to be the one to restore law and order at the expense of an anomaly raised on the comic book stories he himself had written, as well as several gripping monologues that lay everything on the table about what Riley is trying to say, there’s a lot going on in I’m a Virgo from episode to episode that seeks to cover the entire spectrum of the human experience from the streets to the boardrooms.

It’s ambitious, and would easily be in danger of falling apart in the wrong hands, but Riley displays such a strong grip on what he wants to say, how he plans to say it, and the various thematic, visual, and narrative weapons he weaponizes to do so that the end result is so startlingly unique and wondrously imaginative that it demands to be seen in order to be believed.