Like A Boss stars Tiffany Haddish and Rose Byrne, who play two best friends, Mia and Mel, M&M. They run a makeup company and get a business offer that seems too good to be true. Will their friendship survive moving their business to the next level?
For eighty-three minutes, Like A Boss provides you an opportunity to marvel at how beautiful and talented all the actors are, and yet most, if not all of the film, struggles to be entertaining. The director, Miguel Artera, made the film look as slick and beautiful as possible, but it could not make up for how hollow it was, which will really ruin his curve after making Beatriz at Dinner and Chuck & Buck. It was as if a marketing algorithm constructed the story, and no one bothered to run it by a person. I went in expecting that it could be bad, but I was hopeful that it would be my kind of bad. I did not leave mad, just disappointed. I’m going to blame the writers.
Like A Boss’ idea of friendship, business and being single is muddled. If the narrative had nailed a single concept, maybe the movie could have pulled through like Last Christmas, which is not a good movie, but could manipulate an audience into begrudgingly liking the mess. From the beginning of the film, I thought, “Why didn’t they take childhood photos of Byrne and Haddish and photoshop it? They don’t look like the actors at all.” If I’m wrong, then I apologize, but we have to buy their friendship, and I never entirely did though the movie goes through great pains (for us to live through) to show how similar they are. They have one night stands! They smoke weed! It should have been a friendship love story, but it never quite gets what such a relationship would look like.
Like A Boss drops plenty of hints of Byrne’s troubled childhood and her need for approval from an older woman, but they are dropped like cloves of uncooked garlic on a finished plate. Because they are single, we are supposed to buy that they are insecure because of their lack of stability, but they do not want babies and already have a house (Mia’s mom, what the hell?) so it feels like a distraction to dangle these objects in front of them that they do not yearn for. If the trajectory of the film is moving us towards a resolution that the characters’ desire, then they should seem less wistful when looking at these things, especially if the resolution does not bring them to children, houses or romantic committed relationships. Their attitude should have been seeing it as an obligation because they love their friends, but distracting them from what they really want.
What is with Like A Boss endless bemusement over shenanigans involving heights? Is it innately funny, and am I the only person who does not get the joke? I just kept thinking, “Grown women do not do that. We would be worried about hurting ourselves.” The writers definitely had no idea what forty-year old single women do. There is the obligatory scene when one of them hates on younger women for not even needing makeup. We don’t do that! We look at them intensely and urge them to enjoy it while it lasts. Do you know what women in their forties do even if they enjoy having fun? Definitely not going out every night or thrilled at the idea of using a bathroom at the same time.
Like A Boss’ concept of business bothered me. I was briefly a corporate lawyer many decades ago, and throughout the entire movie, I just kept thinking that on some level, none of this makes sense. I understand that it is just a dumb comedy, but they were acting as if Claire Luna, played with enthusiasm by Salma Hayek, was their boss, not their business partner. She is a shareholder so when the leads would say that she stole their idea, I just kept thinking, um, she owns a portion of your idea. How was this deal structured? Is there a clause that allows cooperation with other businesses that she is a shareholder of? Also Luna’s headquarters looks like a mall. Where are the lawyers? That agreement should not be a single page. I also am not thrilled that whenever women are in business, it seems that they adhere to gender normative types of business, which is not unrealistic, but feels a little patronizing in this film.
I really have to admire Hayek’s commitment to the role. For me, she was the only one that I bought as committed to her character in Like A Boss whereas it felt as if everyone else stuck to the script, but never imagined everything about their character as three dimensional characters. Luna is a cartoonish villain, but I feel as if Hayek turned to the director and said, “I’m going to walk with a golf club” then they had to incorporate it into the script. It is ridiculous, but I have seen high powered women do subconsciously physically intimidating things so they did not have to sound unpleasant and could keep their staff in line. Run from those people. I thought that she nailed it, but am a little concerned that Hollywood seems to be type casting Hayek in this film and The Hummingbird Project as the evil corporate bitch that must be stopped.
Is Haddish trying to diversify her portfolio because she sings in Like A Boss, and I swear that she raps with Snoop Dog during the credits? There is a scene when she is sick and sitting on the toilet, but she looks gorgeous. Her funniest scene is probably during the chase before the height shenanigans, but I do not think that anyone knows what to do with this American treasure. I’m committed to seeing at least one of her films in the theater annually so I can check that box.
Byrne has shown a willingness to embrace many different types of roles and genres, but is she renovating a castle? What is going on with her finances? What is happening? Does she need help? Her character is supposed to be the lead that the audience relates to, and Byrne tries to make it work, but wah wah. Jennifer Coolidge has a few moments when she gets to show her caustic wit and steal a scene or two. Billy Porter is himself thus delightful. The crew of friends were individually fun, but as a group, they did not make sense. White women who are friends with black women know about black hair, and if they don’t, then they aren’t really friends, but acquaintances. Karan Soni, better known as Deadpool’s cabdriver, does his job. Veronica Mars’ Ryan Hansen and Crazy Rich Asians’ Jimmy O. Yang appear as possible rivals for Luna’s favors. The best thing about Like A Boss is the talent, and the diversity does not hurt, but um, the person in charge of promotion needs to get in touch with IMDb and do better because some of the actors do not even get their character’s name listed next to them. They deserve better—a little effort.
I love supporting women headlining a movie, especially with such a diverse cast, but they deserve better material than Like A Boss. So do audiences. If you must see it, do it at home for free.