Directed by Miguel Arteta
Where & When: Arclight Cinemas, Hollywood, CA. January 12, 2020 5:15 PM
The most interesting thing about "Like a Boss" is that it's a comedy about platonic love between two women. We get to witness that rarely seen phenomena in cinema where we have two females who focus on their deep friendship and not about them in a desperate pursuit to find a man to complete them. And while this is a wonderfully refreshing development, unfortunately that doesn't mean "Like a Boss" is particularly good. Even with Rose Byrne, a solid performer and our current queen of comedy, Tiffany Haddish as our leads, they are left stranded to flail about with sour lewd humor and odd physical comedy situations that mostly falls flat.
Two close friends since childhood, Mia (Haddish) and Mel (Byrne) run a small beauty company together called Mel & Mia's. Mia has the confident, free-wheeling personality while Mel is the practical, business savvy one. This has worked out fine for their partnership in this business venture however, Mia has been careless about finances which has lead to the company falling in to heavy debt. Reluctant to speak to her about it for while, Mel is finally forced to confront her best friend about their dire situation.
Their savior comes in the form of Claire Luna (Salma Hayek), a major cosmetics mogul who offers to help the ladies in exchange for controlling interest in their company. Mia doesn't trust Luna but Mel talks her in to agreeing to a deal which they will maintain control as long as the two remain partners. And it should not be much of a surprise that Luna plans to drive a wedge between these friends in order to steal their company.
What I'm most surprised about is that Miguel Arteta was the filmmaker behind "Like a Boss". Arteta has brought us some fine, intriguing films like "Star Maps", "Duck Butter" and the features written by Mike White, "Chuck & Buck", "The Good Girl" and "Beatriz at Dinner" which starred Ms Hayek. And while he may just be a director-for-hire here, Arteta has added nothing to make this foul-mouthed, female buddy-comedy feel fresh, energized or distinctive.
Much like Whoopi Goldberg at the beginning of her film career, Ms Haddish has been allowed to coast along on the big screen largely on the strength of her charismatic personality. And while this isn't necessarily a bad thing, it does become tiring to see her not being challenged, particularly in movies not worthy of her gifts. With the exception of her breakout performance in "Girls Trip", she hasn't had many opportunities to showcase her talent in a decent movie role. But if you want to see Ms Haddish at her best, stick with one of her comedy specials for the time being. Ms Byrne's Mel is left with not much more to do than be reactionary to the craziness around her and offer comforting yet stale words of wisdom and advice.
Jennifer Coolidge, Natasha Rothwell (HBO's "Insecure") and the sassy MC from "Pose", Billy Porter do the best they can in their brief appearances but it is Ms Hayek who makes the most vivid impression as the power-mad beauty executive. With a helmet of auburn hair, towering platform shoes and teeth that are too large for her body, Hayek's Claire Luna (looking like the Wicked Witch of the West after a make-over) tries to compensate for her petite size by having everything on her body larger-than-life and who carries a golf club around for no other reason than to just break things.
There are certainly moments that will make you laugh out loud in "Like a Boss" yet you wish that with such great talent involved that someone would have taken firmer control to have made a comedy more worthy of their time and effort. And the novel notion of female empowerment and bonding, which is actually at the heart of this film, gets lost in the steady stream of half-baked comedic set-ups and lame raunchy jokes.
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