Review:
"Like a Boss"
Release Date: Jan. 10, 2020
Rating: R Running Time: 83 minutes Like a Boss is ostensibly about corporate America’s exploitation of small-business owners but it is really just concerned with the surprisingly dynamic comic energy that exists between Rose Byrne and Tiffany Haddish. Which is fine because, when it comes to director Miguel Arteta’s unabashedly uncouth comedy, a lot of Byrne and Haddish goes a long, long, long way. Throw a delightfully ruthless Salma Hayek into the mix as Byrne and Haddish’s nemesis and Like a Boss turns out to be a consistently funny showdown between three headstrong entrepreneurs. BFFs Byrne and Haddish play Mel and Mia, respectively, the owners of a hip but financially troubled Atlanta beauty shop. Mel realizes the only way to pay off their debts, and to remain in business, is to sell 49 percent of their company to Hayek’s cosmetics czar Claire Luna. Luna, though, plots to pit Mel and Mia against each other in a bid to take full control of their company. Like a Bossis driven by the seemingly unbreakable bond that exists between Mel and Mia, best friends since middle school who now share the house they both inherited from Mia’s mother. Mel and Mia are so inseparable that, at the beginning of Like a Boss, they are described by a colleague as non-sexual life partners. The emotional relationship between Mel and Mia is so strong, and they essentially behave like an old married couple, that it seems like a missed opportunity that Like a Bosspresents them just as the closest of friends. Which is a shame because Mel and Mia share such a deep intimacy that it leaves you with the impression that Like a Boss—a film that pays tribute to fierce women—does not have the courage to put a same-sex couple front and center in a mainstream comedy. Regardless, there is no denying that Byrne and Haddish is an inspired, exuberant odd coupling that makes the most out of their individual and combined comic strengths. Both very much operating on the same wavelength, Byrne and Haddish immediately strike you as besties who have logged decades of a shared history. Byrne’s somewhat demur Mel is fiscally responsible; Haddish’s brash Mia is a creative thinker. Together, they are a team that stands its ground; separately, their weaknesses can be exploited, which explains why Luna keeps pitting the sycophantic Mel against the skeptical Mia. Like a Bosssmartly draws its momentum from Byrne and Haddish’s fiery riffs on everything from friendship to sex to commerce to the pressures society places on women. Byrne and Haddish receive keen support from Billy Porter as their tart-tongued cosmetic chemist and Jennifer Coolidge as their emptyheaded but bighearted cosmetologist. In Hayek’s corner is Luna’s assistant Josh, who is played with subservient relish by Karan Soni. While Like a Boss’ focus is on Luna’s threat to Mel and Mia’s relationship, the fast-moving script credited to Sam Pitman and Adam Cole-Kelly offers some amusing but obvious observations about navigating the cutthroat world of business. The film also touches on the role makeup may have in a woman’s life, but it is not willing to take a clear position on the cosmetics industry’s influence on today’s beauty standards. To this extent, Like a Boss certainly does not strive for the same sense of relevancy as director Miguel Arteta’s previous collaboration with Salma Hayek, the socially and politically astute Beatriz at Dinner, but that’s the point.Like a Boss is intended as a loud and proud celebration of what it means to be a working woman in the America of the 21stcentury. And, as far as Like a Boss is concerned, makeup should not and does make the woman. Robert Sims Aired: Jan. 9, 2020 Web sites: https://tickets.likeabossmovie.com/ https://www.facebook.com/LikeABossMov/ |
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