About twenty minutes into the new comedy The Boss I become convinced that my recent car accident – which forced me to have emergency knee surgery – was a heck of a lot funnier. At least, in the future, I figured that my grisly misfortune would become an embarrassing anecdote. Whereas in that same future, I figured the odds of anyone remembering The Boss at all seemed rather remote.
But then a truly funny thing happened. The movie got better. After an interminable first act in which Melissa McCarthy, playing a Donald Trump-like billionaire, loses everything after she’s indicted for insider trading, the movie finally figures out what to do with that abrasive, over the top caricature. It places this the insulting megalomaniac in an unlikely situation – selling Girl Scout Cookies (or the nearest legal equivalent) – and lets her be mean to people who actually seem to deserve a scolding.
The Boss plays a bit like a capitalist Troop Beverly Hills, in which a powerful personality takes over a group of impressionable young girls and preaches values that may be questionable to everyone in the audience but makes for an entertaining comic set-up. Watching Melissa McCarthy abuse despicable parents and lead armies of violent elementary schoolers in bloody street warfare is a hoot and a half. But Troop Beverly Hills is a classic (yes it is, yes it is) and The Boss is a mess, because the former film is consistent and the latter is only funny in fits and starts. And when The Boss isn’t funny, it’s the opposite of funny.
Universal Pictures
It’s important for even the most ridiculous of comedies to have some sort of dramatic through-line, because without it there’s just no momentum. But The Boss gets by so well without the formulaic Save the Cat structure, for a while at least, that you wish they’d just throw that damned cat out the window. The opening is tedious, the conclusion is awkward and unconvincing. Only the middle – the part where Melissa McCarthy teaches terrible lessons to good kids, and shoves cookies up another woman’s ass – does its job properly, and makes us laugh.
Which raises the question: if only 1/3 of a comedy is funny, can it really be recommended? I vote “no,” unless you’re a die-hard Melissa McCarthy fan and you really want to see Peter Dinklage pretend he’s a samurai. (Did I forget to mention that part? Basically, Peter Dinklage pretends he’s a samurai. That’s the joke. You enjoy that.)
Top Photo: Universal Pictures
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and watch him on the weekly YouTube series Most Craved and What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
