The Boss (2016)

Elevator Pitch: Michelle Darnell is the 47th richest woman in America, that is until she is shopped by a business rival and former lover for insider trading. She is jailed and has her assets confiscated, so that when she comes out of prison she has to turn to her former assistant for a couch to sleep on. Claire, the assistant has a talent for cooking brownies and Michelle grabs the opportunity of marshalling Claire’s daughter’s school friends and creating a flourishing business selling the product. The flourishing business attracts Renault, Michelle’s rival and possibly motivated by unwelcome feelings for her temporary family, Michelle sells the business, How will it end?

Content: No  sex or nudity although there are a few sexual jokes. We see Michelle carrying out a motivational show. This is probably the high point of the film so don’t expect it to get better. Michelle generally bullies everyone she comes across, even other bullies. Renault schemes in his office hoping to continue to take advantage of Michelle. He has two Doberman-Pinchers which are terrific. The brownie factory is initiated, effortlessly. Michelle’s schoolgirl sales force fight against other groups at times. There is a climax involving Samurai swords.

A View: I was immediately taken back to “Dragon’s Den” where the dragons would have been asking Michelle how she could possibly expect to scale up a kitchen success into a multimillion dollar business. They would have told her that it couldn’t be done. I know it’s a film, but even so we want to be dazzled by the ingenuity of the plot, and we aren’t. In fact in the Wikipedia description the whole plot is described in two lines. No-one liked this much but it might still have made a bit of money. Not really a watch unless you are a dedicated McCarthy fan or own some Dobermans.

Additional Info: This is apparently the second McCarthy outing written by her and her husband Ben Falcone.  The first “Tammy” was apparently a disaster (still to be reviewed on this site).