Like a Boss

Entirely forgettable, Like a Boss follows small-business owners Mel (Rose Byrne) and Mia (Tiffany Haddish) as their decision to sell to a high-powered CEO (Salma Hayek’s Claire Luna) ultimately pits the pair against one another. It’s a somewhat by-the-numbers premise that’s employed to mostly underwhelming (and flat-out tedious) effect by Miguel Arteta, as the filmmaker, working from Sam Pitman and Adam Cole-Kelly’s screenplay, delivers a half-baked and rather lifeless comedy that contains few standout moments to lift it out of its perpetual doldrums. (Billy Porter’s larger-than-life turn as Mel and Mia’s bold employee remains a rare highlight within the proceedings.) Like a Boss‘ dull atmosphere is compounded by a typically ineffective and mostly grating performance by Haddish, which, in turn, ensures that there’s never really a point at which the viewer is wholeheartedly rooting for Mel and Mia’s success. (And it doesn’t help, certainly, that the expected fake break-up stretch goes on much, much longer than necessary.) There’s little doubt, ultimately, that Arteta’s efforts at closing the picture with a triumphant climax fall entirely flat, and it’s impossible, in the end, to label Like a Boss as anything less than a complete misfire that feels long even at 83 minutes.

*1/2 out of ****

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