By contrast, Mia is meant to come off as a down-to-earth superhero, Captain Natural, but sadly, she turns into Captain Obvious.Įven Haddish’s randy riffs and outbursts grow tiresome. The movie sets up Claire as a cartoon villain, part Meryl Streep in The Devil Wear Prada, part kooky Latina Maleficent-the animated Disney badass, not the post- Wicked, Angelina Jolie, misunderstood version. Claire urges the partners to be “fiercst” (sic) so they can “inspire the ugly people to buy themselves into gorgeousness.” Mel and Mia strive to design products that accentuate women’s strengths without apologizing for their flaws, and thus let their inner lights shine through. The screenplay propels her on a collision course with the 100% artificial international beauty tycoon Claire Luna (Salma Hayek), who plans to corrupt and control Mel and Mia’s boutique company by splitting up the team. Pitched to Paramount as a vehicle for Haddish after her showcase role in Girls Trip (2017), the script by Sam Pitman and Adam Cole-Kelly tries too hard to exploit her gift of exuberance, her flair for unabashed vulgarity, and her specialty of shifting in a nanosecond from intense, self-centered tunnel-vision to bayonet attacks on the hypocritical nonsense surrounding her. It’s the ultimate tick-the-boxes sort of film, starting with the presentation of Haddish herself. The movie isn’t about sisterhood being powerful, though.

From the opening scene of Haddish, as Mia Carter, recounting her latest sex dream to her best friend, housemate, and business partner Mel Paige (Rose Byrne), to the final shot of the two screaming “We did it” as their new makeup company “Proud” goes international, Like a Boss means to celebrate the potent beauty of sorority. Almost everything about Like a Boss is contrived and labored. Haddish should apply that precious wisdom to her movies. “Good ideas do not come to me if they are forced,” says Tiffany Haddish as a natural born cosmetics whiz in Like a Boss. Images from Like a Boss (Miguel Arteta, 2020)

Beauty and the boss movie