Like a Boss (2020)

Starring: Tiffany Haddish, Rose Byrne, Salma Hayek, Billy Porter, Jennifer Coolidge, Karan Soni, Ryan Hansen, Jimmy O. Yang, and Lisa Kudrow
Grade: D

The only thing they got right seemed to be the star power.

Summary

Mia (Haddish) and Mel (Byrne) are lifelong best friends who live together and run a beauty company called Mia&Mel. After a nice conversation about imagining sex with Barack Obama to open the film, they go to work. They interact a little bit with their employee Sydney (Coolidge) as she does makeup for a high school girl. Mia steps in to help, with Mel going to the back to talk with their other employee Barrett (Porter). Apparently, Mia didn’t finish her mixing of the mascaras because she got high. Mel knows how Mia is, so she tells Barrett she’ll get them done. She reviews an email that says “Past Due” right after. Once the young girl leaves, Mel wonders why Mia didn’t charge her full price, so Mia tells her she gave her the “cute nerd” discount. This forces Mel to tell her, Barrett, and Sydney they can’t keep doing that because their company is barely surviving as is. Mia counters with how well their “One Night Stand” kit is doing though. It’s selling big time, and they can’t make them fast enough. Despite all this going on, Mia and Mel leave for Kim’s (Jessica St. Clair) baby shower.

There, they hang out with their friends and discuss their business. Their friends respond by openly expressing their concerns because they are worried Mia and Mel will miss out on having a child because they’re so focused on their company. Later on, when Kim is opening her presents, Aunt Margot (Catherine Carlen) compliments the makeup gift they created for the baby, so they plug their makeup business in the conversation. This just results in Margot smugly talking about her young daughter selling her alkaline water company for four million dollars and having a baby. Following this, we see Mia and Mel privately sharing a joint in a room at the house, as they both air out their grievances about Margot’s comments. Mel notices that Kim’s other baby Ryder is in the room too and as they smoke, she accidentally drops the joint in the crib. After Mia takes a picture, they try to run out of the room, but two of their friends Jill (Natasha Rothwell) and Angela (Ari Graynor) walk up the stairs. Worried, they jump back in the room, climb out the window, and onto the roof. Kim, Jill, and Angela catch them on the roof, and they all start arguing over what’s happening. It devolves into a verbal attack on Mia and Mel and their situations in life, resulting in the two jumping into the pool from the roof and leaving the party.

The next morning, Mel wakes up to Mia and her most recent hookup Harry (Jacob Latimore). Over breakfast, they discuss how great Mia’s mom was and how she left the two friends her house. Mel’s mom was just a meth addict. Just then, they are interrupted by Mel’s hookup who comes down the stairs. Mel coldly shows him the door. Later, Mia and Mel go to buy coffee. Mel wanders if it was a bad idea to think about their business first over their personal lives, but Mia insists it was the right move. Right after, they go to their store and are approached by Josh Tinker (Karan Soni), an assistant for makeup mogul Claire Luna (Hayek). Apparently, Claire has been monitoring their online sales for the last several months and points out the clever idea of the “One Night Stand” kit. At their earliest convenience, Claire would like to discuss investing in Mia&Mel. Mia shuts down Josh immediately because they agreed to never sell out and tells the guy to leave. On the other hand, Mel tells Josh to stay and goes to talk to Mia. She admits privately to her that since they’ve opened the store, they never financially recovered. At their current rate, they’ll have to close in six months. Because of this, they agree to take the meeting with Claire Luna at her company Oviedo.

While waiting in the lobby, Mel tells Mia they’re $493,000 in debt.

Officially, they meet Claire Luna who starts spouting off Mia and Mel’s accomplishments like being two-time “Atlanta Small Businesswomen to Watch”, having $21,000 in online sales last month, and how they’ve been best friends for 22 years. The powerful Claire softens them up by talking about how she believes in their company and their whole mission statement from the jump. Towards the end of the meeting, she offers to pay their debt for 51% controlling interest in their company. Also, she wants to introduce the Mia&Mel line for Oviedo at her upcoming launch party. If it goes well, she’ll invest an additional $1.7 million in them. Mel is immediately on board, but Mia refuses because Claire will own them. They whisper argue with each other, but Mia still refuses to Claire’s face. This forces Claire to offer 49% of the company, giving them controlling interest. Mia still isn’t interested, but Mel asks to give them some time to mull it over. Josh tells them Claire will need an answer by tomorrow. That night, Mia and Mel go out for a drink. In the elevator at Oviedo, Josh asks why Claire gave the girls an offer that favors them, but she promises it’s a strategy. She thinks the money will tear the two a part and that’s when she’ll reap the benefits and get everything she wants from them. After a conversation during karaoke night, Mel is able to convince Mia to agree to Claire’s deal.

The next morning at Oviedo’s, Claire introduces Mia and Mel to Greg (Hansen) and Han (Yang), two straight men in cosmetics that run the chauvinistic and sexist “Get Some” company. Claire then has her meeting with Mia and Mel. She tells them if either one of the two decides to leave the business, Claire will get 51% controlling interest. They agree and sign the contract.

No lawyers are present. Not a great sign.

Following an awkward celebration where they all dance for ten seconds, Claire tells the two the launch party is in six weeks. She wants them to make a presentation for what their company brand will be under her banner by tomorrow. The pressure is on, but they know they have to adhere to Claire’s rules. As things go on, Claire’s demands become increasingly more unreasonable, causing a wedge in the unbreakable bond between the two best friends.

My Thoughts:

Like a Boss was ambitious. The goal here was to create a female-centric comedy that didn’t need a man nor a romantic element to it of any kind. It was all about women putting their careers first and trying to succeed at the highest level, despite starting from the bottom. I appreciate this idea because it’s something new and gives the female viewer a movie that doesn’t focus on the tired story of a man being stuck in the middle of all this to muddy the waters of a career-driven woman. Usually in those films, the male or female character always chooses love in the end. We’ve seen it done a million times. What if we removed this option altogether? This is the idea that sets up Like a Boss. To top it all off, we also get a solid trio to star in the film to put some eyes on the product. A lot of elements were brought together to make some magic. Unfortunately, all of it was thrown out the window.

It wasn’t very funny, almost every aspect of it was predictable, and despite the incredibly short running time, it kind of drags.

The cast should’ve had some moments to shine, but they play the roles exactly the way you’d expect them to, and the film doesn’t come off nearly as special as it could have. It starts with star Tiffany Haddish who plays herself. However, only the bad parts of her persona are turned up. It makes the character of Mia seem so careless with her work, you start to like her a bit less as the film progresses. Besides her “creativity” as a makeup artist, there’s not enough on her side to warrant all the stupid shit she does in the movie that forces Mel to cover for her. Even when both characters are fully aware of their financial situation and are given their first job by Claire, they go to a party (at Mia‘s request to get her creative juices flowing), and Mia immediately leaves Mel to do all the work, so she can have sex with Harry. Right there, I couldn’t stand her. You can pass it off as a comedic moment, but I never felt like the character showed enough of her worth in their friendship to get away with this type of attitude. Even more annoyingly, she’s supposed to be the mean and tough one. This is her whole thing. However, when they’re forced to fire Barrett at Claire’s request, she tells Mel that Mel is secretly meaner on the inside, so she has to do it, and Mel agrees. Mia is supposed to be Mel’s antithesis! This is why they’re best friends! They make up for each other’s flaws! How come the one time she can finally show us why she’s useful, she pussies out? Then, when they have to be very careful with their conversations with Claire, Mia talks recklessly and seems to cause issues when they don’t need to happen.

This forces Mel to clean things up and back pedal even harder, forcing her to look weaker as a result, to avoid both of them getting fired.

I understand Mel needs to express her tougher side more, but you can’t go completely off the deep end and start breaking shit like Mia does! Not once does Mia take into account their financial situation when she acts like an absolute maniac. When you’re in this type of situation, sometimes you have to eat shit. You’re the idiots that signed the contract without a lawyer in sight! It’s true they didn’t want to sell out, and it’s true they need to be tough and stand up to Claire, but Mia goes about it the wrong way so many times, I don’t blame Mel for getting tired of Mia’s antics when they have the biggest opportunity of their lives handed to them on a silver platter. Regardless of Claire intending on screwing them either way, they didn’t know. This just makes Mia look like an asshole because she’s sabotaging things as soon as they have a chance to make some serious money. With Mel, Rose Byrne is always a likable lead, but her being so scared of confrontation from everyone and only expressing her real feelings privately only make you want to scream at her. Act like a businesswoman for once! Again, you shouldn’t act irrationally, but putting your foot down to explain what’s right or wrong with what’s happening isn’t impossible with Claire or with Mia. Being this much of a child in your early forties is crazy to me, even if it was written like this to serve the purpose of the story.

Salma Hayek was well cast, but her evil corporate character was one-dimensional. I’m not saying it had the potential of Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada, but she could’ve taken some notes. Additionally, she needed to be given more to do. She needed to have more quirks or a bit more of a backstory. With the way things were done, she was evil from start to finish. This is basically it. We knew her goal from the beginning: break the friends up and take their company and idea. Because of this, there were no surprises in the beats of the screenplay. You were guessing what the third act was going to bring by the time the first act was over with. Claire was way too thin of a character for Hayek’s capabilities, and it was disappointing. Why couldn’t Claire begin as the evil character but slowly see potential in Mel and feel bad for her. Then, instead of dividing the two just to take the company over, Claire could actually try to lure Mel in as a protégée instead because she sees herself in Mel. With this, she can offer to teach her the tricks of the trade genuinely. This way, Hayek would have a little bit more to do, while also making the character of Claire more of a power-hungry mogul who just demands the best out of everyone, and it makes her see the potential in Mel. Mel can actually start to buy in, and it would force Mia to show her why what she’s doing is wrong. Then, it could save their friendship and lead to the big climax that happened.

There’s so much that could’ve been done here in terms of character development and story depth, but I hate how complacent the writing got. Clearly, they were hoping for the cast to carry it, but they could only take it so far.

It wasn’t nearly as funny as it should’ve been either. We get the usual jokes with the women expressing their true feelings over smoking weed, excessive cussing even when it wasn’t really necessary, and the typical arguing, but there was a lot left to be desired. At times, it seems like they got the “R” rating just because Haddish can’t be funny without cussing. Listen, if you have an “R” rating, use it! Put these women in crazier situations! I needed more happenings like the pepper scene, or when Mia threatens to kill herself until they are allowed to see Claire in her office! This is the type of humor that would’ve saved the film. Have Claire give them some truly crazy assignments like how Miranda Priestly did to Andy Sachs in The Devil Wears Prada (I keep on bringing it up, but they did it correctly there), but have them react like normal people would. Haddish would’ve killed this with her shtick! Then, you could still have Mel being the one trying to make things happen while getting anxiety from the pressure of it all.

One thing was for certain, I felt a humorous fight scene between Mia and Mel was needed. With all the bent-up frustration and stress from Claire, and the divide between them getting deeper and deeper by the day working at Oviedo, I felt like a funny fight scene where they go all out on each other could’ve really made the film. Even when they have their moment of reconciliation between each other, it’s very rushed to get to the climax. These are two best friends that are practically sisters. No matter how close you are with someone like that, sometimes a heated argument/fight is the only way to get the frustrations out. How awesome would it have been had Barrett and Sydney set up a “summit” of sorts between the two, and it turns into a heated argument and eventual fist fight between them that breaks everything in the room, similar to John Bennett and Ted in Seth MacFarlane’s Ted. Hell, Barrett and Sydney could get roped into it as well. Watching Billy Porter jump on Mel’s back and them falling through a table would’ve been hilarious. If handled correctly, it could’ve been hysterical but not without purpose. A scene like this gives all the characters we like a chance to get their frustrations out and give them all a moment of clarity they needed. Sadly, Like a Boss plays it way too safe, especially for an “R” rated film. It needed to be as wacky as the trailer looked.

It had no restrictions and could’ve easily shot for the moon, but they were way too content with what they had.

Early in the movie, they try the unnecessary vulgar humor too, but it doesn’t fit the movie they were going for considering how sappy and borderline cheesy it gets at times (watch the ending and tell me I’m wrong). The movie is about friendship and goal-driven women fighting the evils of corporate America. The humor early on didn’t fit the themes of the movie. I’m usually all for vulgar humor, but here it just seemed forced. If they were fully intending on making the movie as is, Like a Boss didn’t need to be rated “R”. The jokes didn’t need the cussing. It was never essential to the punchline. If they made this “PG-13” (and they should’ve), it would’ve doubled the audience this movie could’ve had because the only people that think Tiffany Haddish is funny are still in high school.

The straight men duo of “Get Some” was a nice touch, and Billy Porter did have some amusing bits.

Also, the “One-Night Stand” kit is actually a great marketing idea for a makeup kit, as is the finale’s “Ride or Die” dual kit for best friends. Someone needs to get on this if it doesn’t already exist.

Like a Boss could’ve been something different for the female audience. Very rarely do women get a chance to see an empowering comedy that doesn’t focus on relationships, so the opportunity here was big. Sadly, they let everyone down. Maybe these were too lofty of expectations because despite a solid cast, the film was too predictable, uneventful, and nothing more than chuckle worthy. Overall, it was a very forgettable endeavor.