I’m a Virgo

Boots Riley’s unique and fresh coming of age story.

I’m a Virgo is a seven-episode joyride about a 13-foot-tall, comic-book-obsessed Black kid named Cootie (Jharrel Jerome). After years of being hidden from the world by his adoptive parents who fear that he’ll be exploited or killed, Cootie ventures into a strange, alternate version of Oakland, California.

In the gentrifying city, Cootie is met with curiosity before being welcomed into the neighborhood. His height is a substitute for race; people see him as normal, but when things go bad they blame his size for everything.

Part fairytale, superhero origin story, and coming-of-age drama, I’m a Virgo is also about our broken economic system. Set in a town transformed by Silicon Valley, the show follows Cootie and a group of young activists who strive to dismantle that system from the inside.

From his early days of being a community organizer, to being the lead vocalist of the radical rap group the Coup, Riley uses his experiences to slam capitalism and offer solutions. His first film, Sorry to Bother You, was about an evil telemarketing company making millions off of slave labor. His clever dystopian films address social justice, poverty, and racism, with I’m a Virgo illustrating the way in which Black bodies are dehumanized by racist perceptions and policies.

I’m a Virgo also stars Allius Barnes, Brett Gray, Olivia Washington, Kara Young, Mike Epps, and Carmen Ejogo.

Catch this imaginative coming-of-age story that’s as thought-provoking as it is wildly entertaining on Amazon.

Boots Riley and The Coup

The Coup is an American hip hop band from Oakland, California. Their music is an amalgamation of influences, including funk, punk, hip hop, and soul.

The Coup’s music is driven by assertive and danceable bass-driven backbeats overlaid by critical, hopeful, and witty lyrics, often with a bent towards the literary. The groups songs critique, observe, and lampoon capitalism, American politics, white patriarchal exploitation, police brutality, marijuana addiction, romance, working at fast food places, and disparities among race and class.