Javier Bardem is a very good actor and a good match with fellow 2022 Oscar nominee Penélope Cruz. But is he a good boss, in his biting corporate comedy of the same name?
Titled El Buen Patrón in its native Spanish, The Good Boss is now playing in cinemas across Australia. It stars the recent Being The Ricardos actor as the owner of a company manufacturing industrial scales—which is ironic enough, since he can’t seem to balance his own work, romance, and all the drama in between.
With his factory in the running for a business excellence award, owner Julio Blanco (Bardem) attempts to run a tight ship, trying to shut up those pesky ex-workers protesting outside and keeping his neurotic sidekick Miralles (Manolo Solo) together.
But disaster can creep in from any side, such as in the form of a seductive new intern. “Justice covers its eyes”, Bardem claims to the new hire (Almudena Amor) in the trailer below, almost choking on his drink when she purrs, “I like having my eyes covered too.”
The Good Boss has been described as a tragicomedy, so expect things to go gloriously out of control and to see a magnetic Bardem getting some kind of deserving comeuppance.
It’s the latest film from Spanish director Fernando León de Aranoa, whose international breakout was the 2002 drama Mondays In The Sun. That film also starred Bardem as one of its unemployed, embittered heroes. Looks like the tables have well and truly turned for Bardem and de Aranoa here: don’t miss the company comedy on the big screen.
