I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

The fact that "The Boss of it All" is a strange film isn't unusual given it was directed by Lars von Trier. He's known for making unusual films and prides himself for his adherence to the posits of the so-called 'Dogma 95' film movement--one that makes many demands for its films, such as the story being placed in the present, the use of natural settings and the frequent use of hand-held cameras (among other things). The film begins unusually--with a narrator acknowledging that this is a film and making comments about the story and cinematography! It also ends in pretty much the same way and even has a point in the middle where more comments are made (presumably by von Trier). The story is about a very deceptive man. While Ravn appears to be a nice guy and his co-workers love him because he's 'like a cuddly bear', this is only a persona he puts on himself. Actually, he's a cutthroat businessman. Everyone thinks he's just a co-worker but he actually owns the company and has maneuvered everyone to sink their saving and energy into the company. But he's actually planning on selling his company to a group of Icelandic businessmen who HATE Danes and plan on firing everyone and making Ravn rich....and leaving his employees out in the cold with nothing! So how does he do this? He has created a fake boss--an absentee boss. But the folks who want to buy the company ALSO think there is such a boss. And, to finalize the deal, he needs to create a fake boss--a hatchet man who can sign off on the deal AND be blamed for everyone losing their jobs. To do this, he hires an out of work actor...but somehow his plan doesn't go as planned!Believe it or not, this movie reminds me of an episode of "Cheers" that debuted long before this movie. In it, Norm owned a painting company and none of his workers worked hard or had any respect for working-- so he created an alter-ego, Anton Keitzer, who was a nasty monster and intimidated the workers into doing their jobs! It's a funny idea and it works just fine in the film. While it is funny, it's not hilarious however and I have the feeling it could have been funnier-- particularly if von Trier had made the film in a more conventional style. Still, it's well worth seeing.

I didn't like 'The Boss of It All', I didn't like it at all. Never before has there been so many ways to make movies – fundamentally to me a movie remains a wonderful cinematic experience – This film doesn't look good, it is distracting and ugly... like today's TV. Separating the relationship between director and camera is just a silly exercise. In my view, in this case, the coherent and the interdependent process seams contrived and arbitrary. Lars von Trier explained that he wonted to make a "light comedy, no message, not even a question or anything, a kind of a feel-good film"; but to me he fails dismally. In the end one may just wonder how long he had to work on post-production, cutting and fixing this flunk. Lars still remains a very intelligent and talented director who loves film making; so he takes risks that don't always work. We all know that love can be fleeting but is worth pursuing... let's hope he get's it back together somehow.

Even when trying to make a frivolous film, Lars Von Trier still makes a minor classic, swimming in themes of pretension and acting, wanting to be liked, the hierarchies of power, exploitation, and cinematic comedy itself. A man who owns a company, w...(read more)ants to sell up, but in is a bind, because he created an imaginary president to take the blame for all stern management decisions, and now his buyer will only speak with the president. He hires an incredibly pretentious actor to do the one time gig, but things go wrong when he accidentally introduces himself to the employees, and has to spend a week riding out the role, till the deal is complete. There's narration in the opening of the movie about this being a an attempt to make a non-political comedy(it fails), that pokes fun at "artsy -fartsy culture"(success)" and that alone was enough to make me want to stop. But this is the trick of all films by this guy, their grueling at times, but also strangely magnetic, and the end is always, always worth the wait, and there's no difference h ere. The "Automotovision" is a bit distracting at first, but I forgot it was there for the most part, all of the actors, two from another Trier film "The Idiots", and Iben Hjejle (of High Fidelity), give great performances. Though Trier makes plenty of use of location changes, at ironic times, the cinema, the Mary go round, etc. Iben Hjejle at one point says "life's like a dogma film, it's hard to hear the words sometimes but there still there", and that's an example of Trier's self mockery as much, as a good rule for viewing the movie in general, don't mind the camera, keep an eye of the characters. Enormously entertaining, and maybe brilliant.

This will be a little hard to understand, for those who are not familiar with Scandinavian office culture and enterprise democracy. For those who are, it's funny.The unemployed actor gets a job. He's supposed to act as executive, during some sensitive business with an Icelandic buyer. It doesn't develop like he has imagined, but in fact it doesn't develop like anyone has imagined.There's lots of kicking here in every direction and not at least against cultural snobbism. It's von Trier back to the basics, but not that easy to grip for people outside a Scandinavian environment.