The Good Boss
Cohen Media Group | Release Date: August 26, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
8
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
Original-CinKaren GordonAug 25, 2022
Aranoa has pulled together an excellent cast. But holding it all together is the formidable and always watchable Bardem. His performance makes this satire also a character study. Read full review
91
ColliderChase HutchinsonAug 25, 2022
While he isn’t an unstoppable hitman, the cold capitalist Julio Blanco rivals the most ruthless and calculating characters Bardem has ever portrayed. Even when the film can’t match his strong performance, he still elevates everything with overwhelming ease. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriAug 26, 2022
It’s a perfect role for Bardem, who has always exuded a kind of natural authority and calm. Every line reading is measured without feeling rehearsed. (He’s a great performer, but that wonderfully solid, anvil-shaped profile of his helps, too. Plus, he gets to indulge his fondness for ridiculous wigs again.) Read full review
80
Screen RantLeonardo FaiermanSep 2, 2022
The Good Boss is a pitch-black comedy with a pitch-perfect performance by Bardem, playing prime dartboard fodder for the proletariat. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithAug 26, 2022
The film, instead of repeating clichés about the supposed heartlessness of the ruling class, could be viewed as either a barbed accusation of managerial hypocrisy from a working-class point of view or as an exasperated testimonial from a manager of how workers make it impossible to run a company like a family. Read full review
80
Film ThreatJason DelgadoAug 25, 2022
I was enthralled with Bardem’s performance, even in the subtle moments. This is important because The Good Boss focuses on him for almost the entirety of its one-hour and fifty-six-minute runtime. The rest of the cast is excellent as well. Read full review
75
Slant MagazinePat BrownSep 9, 2022
In the end, Fernando León de Aranoa’s film suggests that there may not be a lot of daylight between a good boss and a true villain. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperSep 1, 2022
Here’s the thing about bad bosses: they rarely realize they are bad bosses. Even if they’re manipulative, inflexible, uncaring, incompetent, out of touch and generally terrible at virtually every facet of the position, they think they’re doing a fantastic job. So it goes with Javier Bardem’s charming, hands-on, seemingly caring Blanco in writer-director Fernando León de Aranoa’s wickedly warped comedy/drama The Good Boss. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonAug 25, 2022
The cast is uniformly good, but it’s Bardem’s sly, harried performance that powers this overlong, and more amusing than funny, comedy. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneAug 29, 2022
The Good Boss pulls more weight than you’d expect, and Bardem is in charge of the pulling. Here is one of his most packed performances—often funny, yet never engineered for laughs alone, and persuasive in its portrait of an essentially weak soul who persists in dreaming of strength. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleLina FisherAug 31, 2022
For all its dry wit, The Good Boss is ultimately a portrait of a megalomaniac. Showcasing the dramatic lengths he’s willing to go to in order to maintain control (what he sees as equilibrium) in his little kingdom, it leaves a sour taste. Read full review
67
IndieWireChristian BlauveltAug 25, 2022
A movie that isn’t quite sure what it’s saying, even as it mesmerizes you with Javier Bardem’s performance. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comPeter SobczynskiSep 2, 2022
Whether or not Blanco is able to save his factory, Bardem is able to navigate the narrative missteps surrounding him and ultimately make "The Good Boss" worth a look. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Amil NiaziAug 31, 2022
Bardem gives the kind of stately, anchoring performance that can just about make up for any shortcomings the film might otherwise face. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyAug 23, 2022
Once the comedy does kick in, around the 100-minute mark, it does so quite nastily. The movie never quite recovers. Read full review
60
Screen DailyJonathan HollandJul 25, 2022
Bardem’s performance, as a man who has spent a lifetime hiding his unethical behaviour behind the veneer of patrician affability and who seems to have lost his feel for what’s right and wrong, has a depth and complexity that seems to come from somewhere else. Read full review
60
VarietyGuy LodgeJul 25, 2022
At two hours, rather intricately stuffed with subplots ranging from frivolous to grimly consequential, “The Good Boss” struggles to pick up the pace when required: The laughs are there, but more spaced out than they could be. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerJul 25, 2022
There’s lots on the menu, and León de Aranoa brings it all together in a smooth manner. But the jokes tend to be too broad, and the themes too tritely handled. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawJul 22, 2022
The raffish charisma and sinister, saturnine handsomeness of Javier Bardem is what raises this movie above the standard of soap-opera … mostly. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Mark KermodeJul 22, 2022
An impressively slick and slimy performance from Javier Bardem is the standout selling point for this serviceable if (perhaps appropriately?) workaday satire on corporate corruption and alienated capitalism. Read full review
50
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergAug 25, 2022
The Good Boss provides prime material for Bardem, who has to maintain a polished veneer even as his character’s mendacity and troubles mount. As satire, though, the movie is facile. Read full review
50
Washington PostPat PaduaAug 22, 2022
Despite some quality craftsmanship, “The Good Boss” ultimately doesn’t pay off. Capitalism should be more fun than this. Read full review
50
Little White LiesDavid JenkinsJul 22, 2022
It’s a decently constructed piece of fluff that is way too soft to exert any real lasting impact. Yet the reason to see it is for Bardem’s masterful, completely committed lead turn. The real comedy gold comes from his blink-and-you’ll-miss-it expressions and mannerisms that usually come when he’s listening to other people talk. Read full review
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