Jarringly awful comedy
Like a Boss (R13, 83 mins) Directed by Miguel Arteta Reviewed by James Croot ★1⁄2
Mia (Tiffany Haddish) and Mel (Rose Byrne) have been best friends for more than two decades.
Self-confessed ‘‘non-sexual life partners’’, the pair are not only room-mates, but also co-owners of cosmetics company Mia and Mel. They like to call the business their baby, content that, while all their friends have homes, families and lives, they have their passion.
Both have their area of expertise. Mel looks after the operation, while Mia is ‘‘a whirling dervish of creativity’’. Their big seller? The single-use makeup kit entitled One Night Stand, which they dispense from their single storefront, with unsolicited life advice.
However, Mel has been keeping a big secret from Mia – they are actually almost $500 million in debt and, without assistance, will likely have to shut up shop within six months. Enter a white knight, Oviedo boss Claire Luna (Salma Hayek), who has been monitoring their online sales and wants to make an offer. She’ll pay off what they owe, in exchange for 49 per cent of the company. It all seems too good to be true.
As evidenced by everything from Girls Trip and The Lego Movie 2 to Peter Rabbit and Bad Neighbours, Haddish and Byrne are very talented comedians. But this is not their finest hour-and20-minutes. Everything about this flat, fatuous scenario feels forced and rushed.
The trio of writers’ story hinges on lazy contract law, cod psychology 101 and ploddingly predictable action. Meanwhile, the laughs, such as they are, appear to consist of daggy dancing, crude jokes and food sabotage (which wouldn’t be any funnier if uttered by Seth Rogen and James Franco in a bromantic comedy).
And although the production deserves kudos for assembling a diverse cast, this is proof that they still need a decent script to work from. Sadly, here, they have a vague jumble of ideas borrowed from Anne Hathaway movies (The Intern and that holy grail of this genre The Devil Wears Prada) and Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion. Emmy winner Billy Porter (Pose) is wasted, while Jennifer Coolidge seems to basically reprise her Legally
Blonde role and the less said about Hayek’s character the better.
Perhaps the biggest shock though is that this comes from the director who gave us the entertaining family film Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day and the movie that proved Jennifer Aniston could act – The Good Girl. Like a Boss was so jarringly awful in comparison, I had to check it hadn’t being helmed by the current Arsenal football boss – Mikel Arteta.