Review by John Delia
Not a classic but a very funny and bawdy Melissa McCarthy turns up the heat in The Boss. She’s way over the top in this parody on making it to the highest level of the business ladder. Filled with a lot of sight gags, rude wisecracks and off color language it’s a wild and witty nonstop laugh-a-thon. McCarthy’s at her best much like her performance in Spy, but this time it’s taking down her adversary in the business world.
As a spunky orphan youngster Michelle Darnell (Melissa McCarthy) has lived a very dismal life being returned by her adopters every time until she reached the age of womanhood. Dead set on making it in the world, she hooks up with big time businesswoman Ida Marquette (Kathy Bates) who makes her a star and a whole lot of money. Taking on the task of building her own firm, she steps on a few toes including Renault (Peter Dinklage) a shrewd player in the same game.
Michelle uses her employees to get ahead, with her personal assistant Claire (Kristen Bell) being the most loyal. Claire has been hanging on to the extreme business mogul in hopes that she’ll finally be able to support herself and her 10-year-old daughter Rachel (Ella Anderson) in a better lifestyle. But, the sly and vengeance filled Renault, that was jilted by the powerful woman, wants retribution by tricking Michelle into admitting insider trading. Off to jail for 4-months Michelle finds herself scraped dry of her fortune by the Feds. Finally free, she’s determined to find a way to climb back onto the ladder of success.
The film gets really hilarious after the buildup with Michelle moving in with Claire and dealing with her old cronies for a chance to get back in the game. Director and co-screenwriter Ben Falcone (Tammy) knows his main star’s ability and he uses it to showcase the film. He draws a tour de force comedic performance out of McCarthy that tops most everything she’s ever done. Turning up McCarthy’s uncouth and unsophisticated style he plows her into a story that’s so exaggerated and pompous, that extreme laughter becomes the medicine that the film delivers. And, even though you have seen some of her wisecracking films before, Falcone somehow makes her renewed and different all over again.
Needless to say, much like her other films, McCarthy gets an excellent support cast that gives every ounce of their talent to the movie. Leading the way Kristen Bell provides an innocent straight partner to offset McCarthy’s ostentatious character. She’s smart enough to help Michelle continue her huge career, but also a pushover when it comes to falling for her boss’s evil plans. Then there’s Peter Dinklage (“Game of Thrones”) as McCarthy’s adversary Renault. His character controls the second half of the film where we find Michelle being blindsided whenever she gets close to recovering her wealth. He wants revenge and keeps Michelle on the ropes even after she gets out of Federal lock-up.
Finally there’s Annie Mumolo as Helen the mother of one of the Dandelions, a Junior Girl Scout type group that Michelle wants to take over. She does an excellent job standing up to Melissa, but unfortunately for her character, putting her pugnacious attitude against a losing cause. Mumolo’s Helen becomes the most impenetrable person in the film, allowing a wall that Melissa has to break down in order to complete a take-over of a cookie project’s best sales team.
The fight for best bawdy comedian has been raging over the past few years with Melissa McCarthy in the lead at this point. On her high heels are Amy Schumer (Trainwreck, “Inside Amy Schumerâ€), Ilana Glazer (The Night Before, “Broad Cityâ€), Abbi Jacobson (“Broad Cityâ€) and Rebel Wilson (How to be Single). The girls are really rude, crude and hyper sexual in so many ways that they are starting to blend together as the “lewd groupâ€, but that can be a good thing. It seems that film and now television (especially cable TV) are getting high ratings from both sexes flocking to see the openly “sex vamps†show off their talent for “putting their best features†forward in both word and deed. Not holding back anything when it comes to up in your face sex comments to get a laugh or even a rise out of their audience, these women are tops in sexuality openness 21st century America. Not avoiding the youth however, does bother me. The Boss shows Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Bell groping each other in front of 10-year-old Rachel (played by 10-year-old actress Ella Anderson) during a comedic scene. And, in another off-color scene involving juveniles, Michelle explains what “girl on girl†means to a young Junior Girl Scout type meeting of the Dandelions.
The Boss has been rated R by the MPAA for sexual content, language and brief drug use. The language including sexual implications becomes very offensive at times, especially around the youngsters with roles as the juvenile Dandelions and Darnell’s Darlings. And, even I was insulted with the penis sucking offers in the dialogue used as a distraction during a caper being pulled off by Michelle, Claire and her boyfriend Mike (Tyler Labine). The film trailer shows scenes with youngsters fighting over cookie selling territory and may be an opening for adolescent children wanting to go see the film. Be very cautious when deciding to allow immature children attend a showing as it does have many scenes that are inappropriate for young people.
FINAL ANALYSIS: A very hilarious film, but gets a bit too raunchy. (C+)
Additional Film Information:
Cast: Â Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Bell, Kathy Bates, Tyler Labine, Timothy Simons, Peter Dinklage, Ella Anderson, Margo Martindale, Annie Mumolo, Cecily Strong, Cedric Yarbrough.
Directed and co-written by: Ben Falcone
Genre: Comedy
MPAA Rating: Rated R for sexual content, language and brief drug use
Running Time: 1 hr. 38 min.
Release Date: April 5, 2016
Distributed by: Universal Pictures