The Boss of it All (Direktøren for det hele) (2006)
Average Rating: 6.6/10
Reviews Counted: 65
Fresh: 48 | Rotten: 17
Director Lars von Trier ditches the pretensions but keeps his misanthropy in The Boss of it All, a surprisingly sharp and witty comedy about office life gone haywire.
Average Rating: 7/10
Critic Reviews: 21
Fresh: 17 | Rotten: 4
Director Lars von Trier ditches the pretensions but keeps his misanthropy in The Boss of it All, a surprisingly sharp and witty comedy about office life gone haywire.
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Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 6,529
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Movie Info
Lars von Trier's black comedy The Boss of It All (Direktøren for Det Hele) concerns an IT company owner who -- in need of a figurehead to "hide behind" when confronted with employee problems -- invented the personage of a CEO during the startup period for his corporation. The scheme worked for a surprisingly long period, but when the time arrives to sell the business, massive problems arise -- for the prospective buyers insist on only negotiating with the CEO, in person. Thus, the owner further
Cast
-
Jens Albinus
Kristoffer -
Peter Gantzler
Ravn -
Fridrik Thor Fridriksson
Finnur -
Benedikt Erlingsson
Interpreter -
Iben Hjejle
Lise -
Henrik Prip
Nalle -
Mia Lyhne
Heidi A. -
Casper Christensen
Gorm -
Louise Mieritz
Mette -
Jean-Marc Barr
Spencer -
Sofie Gråbøl
Kisser -
Anders Hove
Jokumsen
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All Critics (67) | Top Critics (21) | Fresh (48) | Rotten (18) | DVD (9)
In the humor department, The Boss of It All elicits few belly laughs but lots of thoughtful chuckles.
Top CriticScenes are thus punctuated by as many jump cuts as punch lines--a technique that amplifies the sly humor.
Perverse humor pervades the films of Lars von Trier.
Bone-dry but completely assured, both in its visual strategy and its wry deconstruction of the workplace comedy genre.
How fitting for the film that a computer is calling the shots. But how disappointing for us that it can't punch up a script.
Here's hoping Lars von Trier's retirement will be brief. Cinema needs meddlesome provocateurs. An occasional stone in the shoe keeps us alert.
An appealing low-budget quirky spoof on corporations.
A bit of a shambles, but perhaps in its lack of von Trier's usual pretensions will lie the charm of this film for some.
Full of in-jokes for Von Trier fans and oddly shot, the quirkiness will probably be lost on those unfamiliar with the Dogme 95 man's work.
Von Trier has evidently been watching The Office, and replicates both its soulless setting and fly-on-the-desk camera-style, not to mention the Brentian fear of being unpopular.
The script and story are what matter. They are as neat and interlocked as nail scissors. They are also grimly funny.
Von Trier may be commenting on the mechanical, dehumanised nature of corporate decision-making, or of Hollywood filmmaking. Maybe he's just being whimsical. It's always hard to tell with this joker-provocateur. And always completely fascinating.
In some ways, I enjoyed this movie more than any of his features, and yet it's sad that he has drawn in his horns so much.
Despite roguish interventions from Von Trier himself (in voiceover, and on screen), the movie has more in common with Working Girl and Trading Places than anything from Europe's leading auteur. Which, it seems, is a lucky, liberating thing.
Light, frothy and bitingly funny with a pleasingly dark underside.
Less contentious than typical Von Trier but also less satisfying; fun but perhaps too stiflingly clever to allow the comedy room to breathe.
A movie that manages to be both brilliantly witty and delightfully subversive - not least for reportedly entrusting all its cinematography to a computer.
For all the sleights of hand its director conjures up, this is an undeniably slight affair. But it's still a sublimely entertaining one from a maverick confident enough in his abilities to make fun of his previous work and his agent provocateur persona.
Unpolished, but winning.
Von Trier's deconstructionist streak stymies this admirable attempt at a comedy.
Audience Reviews for The Boss of it All (Direktøren for det hele)
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Foreign Titles
- Direktøren for det hele (DE)
- The Boss of It All (Direktoren for det hele) (UK)
It's funny how intent can so radically change a comedy's reception. This is, all told, the most generic office comedy of errors you could possibly imagine, and some people seem to think it's exceptionally funny. It's really not even remotely on its own terms, with von Trier's lampshading providing the only real chuckles, and even that isn't all that inspired. Not recommended, unless you're hellbent on watching all of his films.