Like A Boss

by Arshon Howard

Like a Boss has all the ingredients to be a great female-led buddy comedy, but despite an enticing cast and highbrow director, the movie falls flat on all surfaces. Mia (Tiffany Haddish) and Mel ( Rose Byrne) are lifelong friends who run a cosmetics business together called Mia & Mel. The two friends are complete opposites, as Mia- (Haddish) is the wild loose cannon, while Mel (Byrne) is the conservative friend, but together they find a way to solve their problems through thick and thin. When they find out they are under a massive pile of debt, they turn to beauty mogul Claire Luna (Salma Hayek), who has an eye for the duo's signature product. Luna agrees to pay off the business's debt in exchange for 49 percent of the company but secretly plans to take full control of the boutique if Mia and Mel break up their inseparable partnership. But that's where the movie falls apart. The plot is way too thin and cliche and doesn't leave room for any laughs. Haddish tried her best to churn out a few funny moments, but that wasn't due to the script. Haddish shinned the brightest when there was open dialogue showcasing her signature outlandish humor. The movie is all about women's empowerment, but the jokes didn't seem to fit the film as much. The R-Rated comedy certainly goes there, but for me, it just didn't work throughout the whole movie. That was one of my major problems with the film, as the raunchy jokes seemed to be written by men for men, which kind of defeats the women empowerment theme the movie was going for. First-time screenwriters, Sam Pitman and Adam Cole Kelly, ungallantly fail to provide that for the film, as the jokes felt predictable instead of modern . Store employees Sydney (Jennifer Coolidge) and Barrett (Billy Porter) provide some comic relief to the movie, Porter, the Emmy-winning star of the television series Pose stole every scene. The highlight of the film was when Luna demanded he be fired in favor of mass production. The scene was filled with laughs by the audience and received a round of applause when it ended. Overall, the movie would have worked better as a 30-minute television episode series than a full-length feature film. The movie was entertaining during the first part of the film but seemed to lose its steam after that. Like a Boss was at it's best when Haddish and Byrnes fed off each other's energy, but their star power and chemistry together wasn't enough to make a memorable movie.