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Movie Review: Like a Boss

Mike Tyrkus

Despite sporting a pedigree of talented people involved in the project, the new comedy, Like a Boss, fails to deliver much of anything in the way of laughs, let alone any real entertainment value for your dollar. The film is consistently mired in a morass of overused comedic clichés and a lifeless plot that never gains the momentum it needs to carry the film from one flimsy comedy bit to the next.

Like a Boss follows best friends Mia and Mel (Tiffany Haddish and Rose Byrne respectively) who not only run the cosmetics company they’ve built together, but also cohabitate in a home that Mia inherited from her mother. Simply put, they are best friends. They’ve been together through thick and thin and seem to share a bond between them that transcends most traditional friendships. But, soon after they and their company are introduced, Mia and Mel run into some operating concerns and it appears as though they may have trouble keeping the business afloat. This allows for the prospect of a buyout from the cosmetics industry titan Claire Luna (Salma Hayek) to come in and save the company (and possibly destroy Mel and Mia’s friendship at the same time).

Director Miguel Arteta, whose most recent theatrical offering was the dramatic comedy Beatriz at Dinner (2017)—which also starred Salam Hayek—delivers a plodding mess of a film that never really finds an identity despite the presence of the aforementioned talented actresses on screen, but that’s certainly not all on him. Much of that should fall on the shoulders of screenwriters Sam Pittman and Adam Cole-Kelly, who make their feature debuts with this wandering, yet somehow completely predictable script that never offers the viewer anything original or sustains any of the chemistry apparent between leads Haddish and Byrne.

Rose Byrne (left) and Tiffany Haddish in “Like a Boss.” © 2019 – Paramount Pictures

The only member of the cast that even remotely stands out is Billy Porter as Barrett, the manager of the shop Mia and Mel run. He easily steals the show whenever he is onscreen, which is far less often than he should be. However, his laughs are delivered almost solely through his characterization as a flamboyant gay stereotype, so perhaps had he been afforded more screen time he would have simply been mis- or overused to the point of cancelling out the good he did in the limited time he was given in the existing product.

Overall, Like a Boss is a middle-of-the-road, predictable comedy featuring two extremely talented actresses that are utterly wasted in a movie that rarely moves beyond its premise and never really settles on a reason for existing until the last few minutes during a pre-end credits musical number. But by then it’s far too late.

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Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com
An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.

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