Like a Boss
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: January 10, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
33
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
15
Negative:
14
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
VarietyLisa KennedyJan 8, 2020
Its economic message might be fuzzy. Its feminism, too. But best-friend comedy Like a Boss rides Tiffany Haddish and Rose Byrnes’s frisky and believable chemistry to laughs — some worn, some crude, but more than a few delivered deftly and consistently enough to keep audiences smiling if not doubled over. Read full review
63
New York PostSara StewartJan 8, 2020
Thankfully, director Miguel Arteta (“Beatriz at Dinner”) gets a solid half-hour of funny out of this thing before clunkiness sets in. Read full review
55
SlashfilmHoai-Tran BuiJan 10, 2020
The problem with Like a Boss is that it spends so much time being a pale imitation of other female-led comedies that it overlooks what makes the film work: Haddish and Byrne. If you just let them riff, let them live together and let the cameras roll, you would get an infinitely better movie than the middling workplace comedy that Like a Boss turns out to be. Read full review
50
The PlaylistKimber MyersJan 24, 2020
Like a Boss is screamingly funny at times, thanks largely to the talented cast. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyMaureen Lee LenkerJan 10, 2020
The film tries to replicate the formula that made "Bridesmaids" sing, pairing a heartfelt story exploring the complexities of female friendship with bawdy, over-the-top comedy. But the first half of the equation only partly succeeds, and the latter falls totally flat. Read full review
50
Original-CinLiam LaceyJan 9, 2020
Apart from the overall endorsement of women’s friendships — and the credible warmth between the two likeable stars — the script’s feminist message is hopelessly muddled. Read full review
50
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldJan 9, 2020
If Like a Boss had a decent screenplay, and was competently directed, it might have been pretty good. Read full review
50
CNNBrian LowryJan 9, 2020
An R-rated gals-night-out comedy that, thanks to the talented cast, delivers a few genuinely amusing moments, but which falls a couple of glasses of chardonnay short of being a good time. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Sarah-Tai BlackJan 8, 2020
The best moments of Like a Boss are just that – moments. The film has an obvious deficit of story – instead of any sort of satisfying sense of development, the audience gets 83 minutes of the same problem repeated over and over. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeJan 8, 2020
If you’re looking for something truly groundbreaking—or hilarious—Like A Boss isn’t it. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeJan 8, 2020
Quite funny for much of its running time, the film feels like it simply runs out of steam in its third act, settling for a lazy, pandering resolution and seeming happy to have made it to the 83-minute finish line. Read full review
50
Screen RantMolly FreemanJan 8, 2020
There's a real sweetness at the center of the film, but Like A Boss surrounds that heart with middling raunch comedy. Read full review
40
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeFeb 26, 2020
Director Miguel Arteta, who brought a bracingly transgressive tartness to indie comedies Chuck & Buck and The Good Girl, delivers sloppily paced hack work here, while Tiffany Haddish and Rose Byrne, two fine comic actresses, are shackled to a screenplay so crassly tone-deaf, it makes you want to chisel off your own ears. Read full review
40
EmpireBeth WebbFeb 18, 2020
Haddish and Byrne play to their comedic strengths but Like A Boss falls foul of formulaic writing and a mistrust of the genre’s full potential. Stick to its groundbreaking peers for a taste of something sweeter. Read full review
40
Film ThreatAlan NgJan 10, 2020
As unoriginal and awkward as Like a Boss is, Byrne and Haddish do everything in their power to elevate the mundane script to something worth viewing. Read full review
40
TheWrapCandice FrederickJan 8, 2020
Like a Boss is vibrant and sometimes funny, but rarely heartfelt and entirely stale. While it hits a few sentimental notes, the film’s failure to delve into the friendship it celebrates, or to say anything significant about women’s relationships in business, ultimately hampers it. Read full review
40
The GuardianAdrian HortonJan 8, 2020
There are kernels of something interesting here: an interracial best friendship and business partnership in today’s America, or navigating best friendship on the cusp of middle age, or maintaining the ethics of your business and passion under the growth mandate of capitalism. It would take thought, and jokes constructed with a motivation other than how to include the word coochie. It would take an understanding that women want to see sex and their bodies talked about filthily on screen, but are smart enough to know that’s not always enough. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJan 8, 2020
Imagine how great it would be to see a vehicle worthy of the respective likability, comedic chops, intelligence, onscreen charisma and beauty of Tiffany Haddish and Rose Byrne. No, I mean you’re really going to have to imagine that, because Like a Boss is not that movie. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJan 8, 2020
Conceived and developed shortly after Haddish scored, deservedly, with “Girls Trip,”” the movie is a mechanical series of witless yeast infection jokes, or thereabouts. While director Miguel Arteta has made some interesting work in the past, including “The Good Girl” and “Beatriz at Dinner,” his way with low physical comedy here is pretty artless. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreJan 8, 2020
Like a Boss delivers a solid opening twenty minutes, and a few laughs, here and there, after that. Just not enough. Read full review
37
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanJan 9, 2020
Like a Boss is the perfect airplane movie: something that won’t distract you terribly much while you work the New York Times crossword puzzle during a long flight, periodically looking up at the screen when the 2-year-old in the seat behind you kicks the back of your chair. Oh well. At least that way you won’t fall asleep. Read full review
33
IndieWireJude DryJan 10, 2020
Like a Boss may preach friendship above all else, but sitting through it together would test even the strongest of ties. Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreJan 11, 2020
It’s hard to guess whether the story was mangled by studio reedits or just didn’t have much to say to begin with — both seem possible. The bigger question is why so many strong actors signed on for this misfire. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshJan 8, 2020
If there’s one word to describe the girl-power comedy “Like a Boss,” it’s incomprehensible. Structurally, industrially, philosophically and emotionally incomprehensible. What should have been an easy breezy buddy comedy is rather a flabbergasting tone salad. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisJan 8, 2020
Aside from the committee-written script with no coherent perspective, the trouble with Like a Boss is that it never crudely outrages. It’s a bust in so many ways. The halfhearted gender and cultural political incorrectness of Hayek’s ridiculous character makes for halfhearted laughs, and that’s being generous. Read full review
25
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireJan 9, 2020
Like A Boss is a movie written and directed by men which bears very little resemblance to how women actually relate to each other. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJan 8, 2020
It’s just cheap, it’s bad, and a completely out-of-left-field Pink Floyd reference — one of their employees is named Syd, the other Barrett — doesn’t help. It just feels like part of the general sloppiness. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineDerek SmithJan 8, 2020
Its inconsistent, half-baked characterizations would be more forgivable were they at least in the service of some inspired comedy. Read full review
20
Rolling StonePeter TraversJan 9, 2020
What we have here is a comedy on life support, with Haddish and Byrne valiantly performing futile acts of resuscitation. Sorry to report: The patient died. Read full review
20
Arizona RepublicGarrett MitchellJan 8, 2020
The script to this flop doesn't even have enough laughs to amuse someone in the most boring of orthodontist waiting rooms. Read full review
10
The New York TimesManohla DargisJan 9, 2020
Actors make lousy choices all the time and if Like a Boss makes money no one will care that it’s formulaic, unfunny, choppy, insults women and seems to be missing much of its middle. Read full review
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