The Good Boss
If Fernando León de Aranoa ’s newest featureThe Good Boss(original title : El buen patrón)is a workplace comedy , it ’s a drily vicious and enfeeble one . Do n’t be misdirect by the often - playful soundtrack or predictable charm of its tip , as the film ’s bleak resolutions are script from its first scene . Javier Bardem fires on all cylindersas Boss Blanco , the blandly slimy head honcho of a manufacturing company that produces industrial scale of measurement , muster a personality build totally of aerofoil materials and a constant appetite for synthetic accolades and adulterous sexual conquests . The Good Bossis a delivery - black comedy with a pitch - perfect performance by Bardem , play prize dartboard fodder for the proletariat .
A hatred criminal offense introduces the picture show ’s workplace theater , with a threesome of MENA ( Middle East and North African ) youths sharing a articulation in a car park at night before being accosted by a group of tattooed , mop up - riding delinquents . The attackers ’ arrest segues into a yawn - inducing corporate monologue deliver via cherry selector to the mill employees of Básculas Blancos , workers who Boss Blanco unironically deems his “ child . ” The fellowship has been name for a business award for excellence and Blanco require to ensure that the gears turn flawlessly for the honour committee ’s heavy arrival .
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Most every view in the moving-picture show hang on Bardem ’s weirdly magnetic spell as Blanco , a mix that blends imposing personal magnetism with a dopey public - facing grin , downy greyish swob , and maternal heaviness . It ’s his big - time “ papa energy ” which complete the façade , a justificative cuticle obscure his debauchee pursuits and a simmer , spooky rage which rarely coat to breathe . And still , the character is less of a calculated or conniving behemoth than an madcap one , a somebody in top executive who musters life - altering ruling on a dime and disposes with member of his interior circle as needed .
In true smutty drollery fashion , The unspoilt Bosstoys with lionizing its central character to the hearing , offer a shotgun fundament through his struggles and accomplishments . When the marital troubles of childhood friend and shop captain Miralles ( Manolo Solo ) house of cards up , Blanco ’s supportive mien and further back rubs may appear as the considerate reactions of a confidante . In truth , he ’s just doing his best to shore up the mill ’s harmony , a pretense to accompany that upcoming umpteenth award , a plaque to fill up space on a rampart among dozens of its brethren .
So , no , Blanco does n’t consider his employee as family or progeny , although the delivery adds an incestuous layer to his pursuit of Liliana ( Almudena Amor ) , a late intern he fail to recognise as the grownup girl of an associate degree . She ’s but one of a revolving door of intern he ’s similarly stalked as prey , members of his dim daily cruise past the factory ’s bus stop to mouse on fresh hires . He misjudge her , though , just as he misjudge recently displace employee Jose , who has fix up a one - valet protest zona by the factory to shatter its peaceful veneer . With all his anti - capitalistic bullhorn harangue and taunts , Jose becomes Blanco ’s “ villain , ” if he truly has any .
The challenge for the moving-picture show is to notice its metaphorical counterbalance when almost every view is as chilly and obvious as its clinical color palette . The scales manufactory construct is mined for any evident depth and therefore leave short to research , and an excellent import which offer Prokofiev ’s “ terpsichore of the Knights ” as Blanco ’s own internal blustery subject is lovely , but also inert and final . There ’s even a quick but regard pellet that mix Blanco ’s mock grave – a piece of homemade agitprop constructed by Jose – as a burn crown of thorns . The symbolism is always there on the screen , just far from elusive .
Similar in certain ways to Willem Dafoe ’s incredible turn as adown - to - earth shlub inThe Florida Project , Bardem ’s Blanco is always spookily recognizable and approachable , a standout among contemporary part which usually find out him in large - than - lifetime expo . Blanco is the kind of relaxed despot who is so rarely brought down from his cloud , and the film ’s greatest scene takes position at a dinner party he is unprepared for , one where his married woman quickly sort out his own ego - made man mythology by cue him that he inherited the clientele from his male parent . It ’s a reality singultus for a man who ’s made his riches by believing and take the air and succeeding within those Trygve Lie .
For those awaiting Blanco ’s eventual and merited dethroning , it ’s best to seek another target . The Good Bossultimately manifests as more of a grim statement on the ineffable durability of privilege than anything else , echoing the anti - resolution and unfairness regain in film likeCrimes and Misdemeanors . The perfunctory monsters die hard and the employees get establish down ; even Liliana ’s eventual comeuppance is muck up in dismal compromise and manipulation . She ’ll go far , much like Blanco , or anyone who know how to toy the game , light in railway line , and then attain at chance ’s call . The rest can punch in and punch out evermore . Like Básculas Blancos itself , there ’s a message here that proportion is n’t general or even natural . It ’s forge , faked , and sold .
Javier Bardem in The Good Boss
The Good Bossreleased in limited theater on Friday , August 26 , and will expand to more theaters on September 2 . The film is 116 minute long and is unrated .
