One of the funniest moments comes before the opening titles, when Michelle raps her version of DJ Khaled’s “All I Do Is Win” (complete with T-Pain cameo) during a pyrotechnic-infused financial motivational speech. But there are nuggets of hilarity to be found. The structure of “The Boss” doesn’t quite work, and the transitions between acts are wonky as all get out. It’s there that she cooks up her new business venture with the help of Claire’s daughter Rachel (Ella Anderson) – starting up a girls’ troop, the Darnelle Darlings, selling brownies and giving the girls a cut of the profits. She gets popped for insider trading by her lover-turned-nemesis Ron/Renault (Peter Dinklage), and after her time in the clink, ends up on the couch of her former assistant, Claire (Kristen Bell). In “The Boss,” McCarthy plays Michelle Darnelle, a cold-blooded, no-holds-barred wheeler and dealer and the “47th wealthiest woman in America.” Michelle has a penchant for high turtlenecks, flowing tunics and dirty-mouthed smack talk honed in the halls of Wall Street.
In both “Tammy” and “The Boss,” McCarthy and Falcone take high-concept characters of McCarthy’s – both rambunctious women-children who enjoy rap music and flouting the law – and set them free in a lightly sketched out cinematic world. That’s not necessarily a bad thing if you’re in the tank for McCarthy’s specific brand of character-driven physical humor. While the Feig films are more tightly and traditionally structured, with a high joke density, the Falcone films have proved to be loose and profoundly weird, with room to indulge in strange bits and riffs. With writer/director Paul Feig, she’s found some of her greatest success, from her breakout in “Bridesmaids” to the runaway hit “The Heat” to last year’s surprise, “Spy.” Then there’s her husband, Ben Falcone, a fellow alum of the Groundlings comedy theater, with whom she co-wrote, and he directed, “Tammy,” and now “The Boss.” Melissa McCarthy is a two-man woman when it comes to her career.