Manuel here. It feels like just yesterday we were talking about Melissa McCarthy’s poster for Spy (a film we ♥ here at TFE given our love for Rose Byrne’s Rayna “sad clown” Boyanov). But here we are again with the latest poster for the upcoming film The Boss. Sadly, it is not about Judith Light which is immediately where my mind goes whenever said phrase is used. It is instead about a business mogul, Michelle Darnell, hoping to rebuild her empire after serving time.
Take a look at the poster and ten thoughts it inspired after the jump...
- It’s like the Stephen Colbert portrait got a McCarthy makeover.
-“Melissa McCarthy is The Boss” is as good a sell for this film as anything else one could come up with.
- That haircut is so perfectly garish. Like Suze Orman’s hair caught on fire.
- Really hope the turtleneck is more than a mere character trait (she’s seen in a variety of turtlenecks and neck-scarfs in the trailer as well), though in comedy that usually only goes in one direction. So let’s hope that’s not the case here.
- “Rated R” leads me to think McCarthy and husband Ben Falcone are getting ballsier with their projects (but then Tammy was also a Falcone-directed R Rated film and it’s the only McCarthy vehicle that didn’t cross the $100 million mark, so maybe Feig is her lucky charm?)
- Michelle Darnell looks like a great SNL character (that’s why the actress does so well when she hosts the NBC sketch show) but will she grate for an entire film (as can sometimes be the case with her other big screen outings)?
- Fact: McCarthy is best when paired with quick-witted funny ladies (see: Wiig, Bullock, Byrne) so it’s exciting to see her partner up here with Kristen Bell (who really deserves a great big screen break, post-Frozen), but then we wouldn’t know the film looks like a two-hander from this poster.
- Plenty has been written on McCarthy as one of the few actresses who can still sell a movie; but this is reaching Adam Jones/Burnt territory in terms of “star power”-driven marketing, no?
- Part of me wishes they’d have used this one moment from the trailer for the poster because it’s so ridiculous and also mirrors the same 'McCarthy can sell anything' ethos of the poster.
Watch the trailer below and weigh in. Will McCarthy’s streak continue with The Boss, or will her other 2016 film be the one to really blow up the box office next year?