Filmmaker Xavier St-Roch spins the crime drama on its head in his comedy feature, For The Boss. Our tale opens with a pretty simple premise: a guy sleeps with the wrong woman, and now he’s tied to a chair. That guy is Lance (Daniel-Paul Sampson), and the woman? Maria (Shelby Handley) is the ex-wife of a mob boss. But she said she was single. Oops.
Set in an isolated location in what appears to be an office building, Lance is told, quite matter-of-factly, that for his sins, he’ll be tortured and eventually killed just as soon as “the boss” arrives. But something doesn’t sound right when the big guy (Daniel Christian Jones) calls in to check up on the progress with Michael (Cole Munden), the lead goon on duty. That’s when Michael starts to unravel and panic.
Enter Sal (Darius Rathe), a henchman with the energy of a squirrel on espresso. He asserts his alpha machismo by quoting one movie line after the other, turning himself into a cliche. This hostage situation with Lance quickly turns into a cavalcade of misunderstandings and one-upmanship.
“…a guy sleeps with the wrong woman, and now he’s tied to a chair.”
As it turns out, Lance is a lot more clever—and a lot more dangerous—than his captors assumed. Yet, he continues to replay the events that got him to this point—his affair with the boss’ wife, Marie (Shelby Handley).
For The Boss follows the current trend of indie and big studio comedies. Its humor is found in witty dialogue and characters that subvert expectations. Regarding characters, you have mobsters and henchmen who have real feelings behind their rough, murderous exteriors. In other words, it takes the stereotypes of crime thriller characters and flips them on its head. It all leads to a sweet and emotional ending…for a comedy.
Then there is the witty dialogue. The best example is the relationship between the film’s protagonist, Lance, and his girl, Marie, and their conversation about being PG-13 in an R-rated world. Much of For the Boss features observational conversations about the duality of good and bad guys in crime stories. While not all the jokes are laugh-out-loud funny, For the Boss hits more than it misses.
For The Boss is a clever spin on the crime genre, balancing dark humor with some genuinely thoughtful character moments. Xavier St-Roch leans into witty dialogue and subverted expectations, offering up mobsters who are more self-aware than scary. It’s a solid indie comedy that finds charm in its simplicity and delivers just enough surprises to keep things interesting.
"…being PG-13 in an R-rated world..."
