The Boss, 2016.
Directed by Ben Falcone.
Starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Bell, Ella Anderson, Peter Dinklage, Tyler Labine, Cecily Strong, Kristen Schaal, Ben Falcone, and Kathy Bates.
Synopsis :
A titan of industry is sent to prison after she’s caught for insider trading. When she emerges ready to rebrand herself as America’s latest sweetheart, not everyone she screwed over is so quick to forgive and forget.
Melissa McCarthy is a talented comedian and actress, provided she is given direction by actual competent filmmakers. The Boss however, is the next lazily constructed feature from her and her husband Ben Falcone (2014’s dreadful Tammy), based on another character from McCarthy’s past comedy sketches). Putting it bluntly, these two seem to be incapable of creating a movie with value, which is somewhat shocking considering McCarthy is essentially the muse of director Paul Feig (yes, I know Ghostbusters looks terrible, but that doesn’t discount the fact that Bridesmaids, Spy, and The Heat all have some value and redeemable qualities), who surely must have taught her SOMETHING about writing characters that walk a fine line between being aggressively annoying and charming within their crass behavior.
Instead, Falcone and McCarthy always seem complacent with settling for lowbrow, bottom of the barrel humor that isn’t grounded in reality. The Boss seriously opens with Michelle, the filthy rich businesswoman at the famous United Center in Chicago delivering a seminar on getting rich, complete with an over-the-top theatrical dance and musical number with rappers performing the irritating “All I Do Is Win” song. It’s truly awful stuff, but somehow not even the worst the comedy has to offer.
The movie itself can’t even decide what it wants to be; after serving jail-time for getting caught doing some illegal insider trading (snitched on my former boyfriend and accomplice played by Peter Dinklage, who is far too talented to be showing up in garbage comedies like this), Michelle must assimilate with working-class life, specifically her former secretary (or something, I really don’t care) Claire (Kristen Bell) who allows her to room and sleep on the couch until she gets back on her feet. It then transitions into Michelle starting a girl scout brownie empire thanks to Claire’s apparent expert cooking skills, and daughter interested in those social activities. There are feuds between other girl scouts, double crosses, Peter Dinklage coming back into the picture, and nearly everything you would expect from a cookie-cutter comedy (or brownie-cutter in this case). The problem is that the flow is absolutely atrocious. If you couldn’t tell, the movie isn’t very funny either.
Something has gone wrong in the writing department when characters are actually acknowledging that other characters are acting like clichés. That’s not an exaggeration or fabrication either, but a piece of word for word dialogue from the script, coming at the point in the movie where the two protagonists have a big argument. You know, the scenario that plays out in 95% of comedies ever made. The movie also isn’t being meta or self-aware, it’s just that poorly scribed.
Now, retreading formulaic ground doesn’t necessarily mean a movie can’t be good, but The Boss‘ idea of comedy is basically nothing more than Melissa McCarthy slinging insults at everyone whether they are a child or an adult, acting a grade-A jerk, and physically beating everyone up from, you guessed it, children to adults. Some of it just comes across as mean-spirited and obnoxious, which goes back to my original point that Melissa McCarthy seems completely unaware as to why her lead comedies directed by Paul Feig are actually good and well-received critically. She seems to think that just because her juvenile and bratty characters learn a life lesson at the end of the day, all should be forgiven and that the character is actually well-written since she goes through an arc. It just doesn’t work that way; horrible people can still be endearing.
There are also quite a few scenes where the movie is going for big laughs, and just failing spectacularly. To name a few, one is the commercially advertised brawl between girl scout foundations, and another is a back-and-forth where Michelle and Claire basically insult each other over how to wear bras. It ends with Melissa McCarthy getting punched in the boobs, and yeah, it’s a total misfire.
As a couple of backhanded compliments, I will admit that the character Melissa McCarthy is playing here is almost unrecognizable in appearance, and that the actress does once again inject a ton of energy into her shenanigans. Claire also begins dating a guy (Tyler Labine) that is essentially a goofball and horrible at flirting; he is one of the few charming characters in the movie. Also, it’s hard to deny that a sword fight between Melissa McCarthy and Peter Dinklage isn’t entertaining.
For the most part though, The Boss is wholly disposable and worthless. The scary part is that it might not even be the worst Melissa McCarthy movie of 2016…
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder – Chief Film Critic of Flickering Myth. Check here for new reviews weekly, friend me on Facebook, follow my Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
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https://youtu.be/b7Ozs5mj5ao?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng
Originally published April 8, 2016. Updated April 15, 2018.
