Movies
Big release on April 8: The Boss.
Big picture: Billionaire business tycoon Michelle Darnell is instantly recognizable. Amoral, loud, arrogant, brash — a haircut that looks like some kind of carefully groomed rodent curled up to sleep on top of her head. Melissa McCarthy’s new character is basically Donald Trump’s soulmate. That’s why her new film, The Boss, is so effective. (At one point, she makes a stage entrance riding a giant, solidgold phoenix, amid pyrotechnics; replace that concept with an America eagle, and you’ve basically got Trump’s plan for the presidential debates.) Oddly enough, Darnell’s character is half Trump and half Bill Murray’s St. Vincent. When she loses her wealth due to insider trading, Darnell is forced to move in with Claire (Kristen Bell), her former Cratchit-esque employee. There, she befriends Claire’s young, impressionable daughter. Cue the bad adult role modelling, deviant behaviour and politically incorrect advice that inexplicably serve as “teachable moments” for both. (Game of Thrones’ Peter Dinklage co-stars; suffice it to say if Darnell was in Westeros, the Iron Throne would be hers.)
Forecast: The Boss will make you appreciate your own.
Honourable mention: Hardcore Henry. It’s a first-person shooter action movie! Imagine “playing” a nearly two-hour video game without a controller! When his body is destroyed, Harry’s scientist-lover turns him into a super soldier, and is promptly kidnapped. Henry’s like Frankenstein’s monster, only shady governments pursue him instead of the torch-and-pitch-fork crowd. Filmed entirely from Henry’s perspective, it’s like the audience is shooting, stabbing and blowing up the world around them. (For the record: I would have preferred a first-person movie where I eat giant mushrooms and fire flowers, slither down drainpipes, hop on top of Goombas and clash with King Koopa to save Princess Toadstool. But hey.)