Like a Boss

Starring: Tiffany Haddish, Rose Byrne, Salma Hayek, Karan Soni, Jacob Latimore, Billy Porter, Jimmy O. Yang, Ryan Hansen, Jennifer Coolidge, Jessica St. Clair, Natasha Rothwell, Lisa Kudrow
Directed by: Miguel Arteta
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy
2020

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Two friends (Tiffany Haddish, Rose Byrne) run a struggling cosmetics company, but see a potential path to salvage when a ruthless CEO (Salma Hayek) offers to invest in their company.

Review:

Tim: Like a Boss really frustrated me. Audiences absolutely need movies like this- it featured multiple strong female characters and their love lives were secondary or not a focus in the film. It's a movie about women trying to succeed in business and doing some good in the world. We simply do not get enough of these films. It also featured an impressive diverse cast and felt like exactly the kind of film we need to see produced more often. Unfortunately, director Miguel Arteta sets the whole movement back with an unfunny, badly written mess of a film. I don't know why it's so hard to craft something better than this. The movie is helped to some extent by the cast, but it's not enough to salvage what could have been a funny comedy.

The script felt really weak to me. The events of the movie never make a whole lot of sense- multiple times during the film, I thought to myself, "Well, that's not actually how business works." The whole thing feels slapped together by people who don't really understand the world they are trying to depict. The movie is also surprisingly unfunny. I might have scoff-laughed a few times, but there weren't any especially humorous parts. The R rating feels wasted- sure, the characters have a larger vocabulary (which they use), but it doesn't result in any additional humor for the film. The R rating definitely gives the whole film a sharper edge, but it still feels like a letdown in the humor department. I suppose it's mildly amusing to see the cast ab lib (I assume that's what happened throughout the film), but the movie is really devoid of any great laughs. The whole thing feels like a subpar effort from start to finish. It's forgettable, weak, and no one seems all that invested in the final outcome (perhaps an exception for the cast). The writing most often feels lazy and predictable. This movie feels like a hundred other movies from a story perspective. There's nothing inspired here, nothing to get excited about. It's about two friends whose friendship is tested when their company is invested in by a big time CEO, who wants to drive a wedge between them for some illogical reason (business reasons, the film tells us). We know their friendship will bend but not entirely break. We know they'll patch up their differences in time for an absurd resolution of the conflict the film presented. We know we won't be laughing much along the way. The whole thing plays out exactly as you would expect it to. The movie is weak and disappointing.

The one redeeming quality is the cast. I'm not a big Tiffany Haddish fan, but I appreciate the energy and passion she brings to her roles. She's really trying here. It's a failed effort, but she puts a lot into this character and wanted the movie to succeed. The same can be said for Rose Byrne. I do like Byrne and I think she can do a lot of things as an actress. She has range. She's been really strong in comedies before, but all her effort is for naught here. Her performance routinely feels forced. She tries so hard to make us laugh but it just doesn't work. Mild amusement at her fully committing to a ridiculous character, yes. But she's not especially funny. I did enjoy the back-and-forth between Haddish and Byrne. That's absolutely one of the strengths of the film. They work well together and with a better script and direction, they could make a dynamic comedy team. This film leaves us lamented what could have been. What actually is doesn't deliver anything spectacular.

I was surprised how much I disliked Salma Hayek's performance here. Hayek is almost always good, even in very bad movies. It felt like an inspired choice to have her play the villainous boss creating the film's conflict. She seems to revel in the chance to play this character. I think the script completely let her down, though. Everything she says and does is predictable or illogical. It's never interesting. Her lines are bland and unmemorable. She seems completely without direction, so she ends up delivering a performance that falls flat in nearly every arena. I read a few reviews praising her performance and I just don't see it. Hayek is a good actress and she's usually effective in these kinds of films. She wasn't here and I definitely blame the script and Arteta's direction. Karan Soni gets so little to do, but he was fine in his supporting role. He's a hilarious actor and it was odd to see him so neutered here. He never made me laugh once. The same can be said for Jennifer Coolidge, who usually kills these small, supporting comedy roles. I mostly just felt bad for her. Jimmy O. Yang and Ryan Hansen are likewise bland and forgettable. They are talented, but so underutilized here. The same thing for the Lisa Kudrow cameo- you just kind of wonder why she bothered. Billy Porter does add some energy and humor to the film- he's one of the few standouts among the supporting cast.

Like a Boss is just a disappointing film. Thankfully, it has a solid cast and while they are hampered and limited by the script and direction, so the movie doesn't feel completely worthless. However, it's definitely not a good movie in the least.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 5.5


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