CineMata's Movie Madness
  • Homepage
  • Guest Reviews
    • Rhapsody in August
  • Cine's Closeup
    • The Pale Blue Eye
    • The Munsters 2022
    • Hello, My Name is Doris
    • In Praise of Family
    • Venom 2
    • Ophelia
    • Mank
    • Macbeth 2015
  • Pioneering Feministas
    • Tar: Are You Being Gaslighted?
    • Janet Green: Tapping into the Dark Side
    • Women Make Film
    • Alice Guy-Blache
    • Auteur Directors
  • Star Spot
    • Juanita Moore
    • Raisin in the Sun 3
    • Cine's Walk of Fame Tour
  • The Woman's Voice
    • Blonde 2022
    • Women Warriors
    • The Divine Order
    • Twilight: A Primal Call for Patriarchal Dominance
    • The Fierce Women of Summer
    • Martha Fiennes' ONEGIN
    • The Dressmaker
    • Sofia Coppola and The Silent Woman
    • Thelma and Louise
    • Bridesmaids 2011
    • Mildred Pierce HBO
    • Dragonwyck
    • Cousin Bette
    • Stage Beauty
  • About Cine
  • Top Ten Faves
    • 'Tis the Season for Murder
    • 12 Days of Cinematic Christmas 2020
    • The Best Film Experiences of 2017
    • Female Villains to Die For
    • 10 Remakes to Remember
    • We Heart the Bad Boys
    • 12 Days of Cinematic Christmas 2014
    • Most Memorable Moms
    • Cult Film Faves
  • Contact Cine
  • Hollywood Notables
    • Fiona Shaw
    • Viola Davis
    • Elizabeth Banks
    • Shia LaBeouf
  • Rave Reviews
    • Best of Netflix 2017
    • Mayhem
    • Dave Made a Maze
    • Lavender
    • Hail Caesar!
    • Spy
    • Gravity
    • Inception 2010
    • Black Swan 2010
    • Flight
    • Moonrise Kingdom
    • Lincoln
    • Looper
    • Lawless
  • Telegenic Static
    • Wednesday
    • Cine's 2018/19 Seasonal Faves
    • The Highwaymen
    • Cine's New Year Resolution: Watch More Netflix!
    • TCM : A Class Act
    • Best of TV * 2017
    • Female Detectives on TV
    • Neo-Renaissance TV: Feud & Big Little Lies
    • True Detective Navigates Noirland
    • Texas Rising
    • 2014/2015 TV Season Highlights
    • 2013-2014 TV Favorites
  • British Film & TV
    • The Banshees of Inisherin
    • Doc Martin
    • Song of the Swan
    • Death in Paradise
    • Miss Scarlet and the Duke
    • The Stranger
    • Sanditon
    • Collateral
    • Handsome Devil
    • Love & Friendship
    • Victorian Slum House
    • 45 Years
    • Anonymous
    • Appropriate Adult
    • Sherlock Holmes: Many Faces
    • Philomena
    • British Feminista TV
    • Brassed Off
  • The Golden Age
    • Gone with the Wind
    • Cleopatra 1934
    • Elizabeth Taylor: The Passing of an Icon
  • Who You Callin' Crazy?!
    • Cine's Walk of Fame Tour
    • Count Bela: Nosferatu & Vampyr
    • Post Awards with Ida Lupino
    • The Duke: Cowboys/Aliens vs WWZ
    • Liberace Dishes
    • Elizabeth Taylor Visits Cine
  • Noir Greats
    • Nightmare Alley
    • The Big Heat
    • Femme Fatales: Crime is My Career
    • Femme Fatales: Honey, I'm Home!
    • Crime of Passion
    • The Loves of Carmen
    • The Many Faces of Noir
    • In Order of Disappearance
    • Boss - 2011/12 series
    • Pepe le Moko 1937
    • Mystery Street 1950
    • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
    • The Barefoot Contessa: A Noir Bridge to Nowhere
    • They Won't Believe Me
    • Dan Duryea Nails Noir
    • What Is Film Noir?
    • They Drive By Night
  • Commentaries
    • Award Season 2019 Redux
    • #OscarsSoTarnished
    • Orson Welles Independent Film Tribute
    • Oscar 2016: The Politics of Segregation
    • Hollywood Director's Club: For Men Only
    • Poliwood and the Hollywood Blacklist
    • Cine Mata's 2015 Picks and Pans
    • The Unbearable Whiteness of Emmy Hosting
    • Oscar's Dodge
  • Drive-By Reviews
    • Dark Phoenix
    • Nola Circus
    • Comfort
    • ATOMICA
    • Innuendo
    • My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2
    • Film Franchise Meltdown
    • The Woman in Black
    • Girls with Guns 3.0
    • Coriolanus
    • Lady Scarface 1941
  • International Films & TV
    • My Pandemic Marathon Diaries
    • The Twelve
    • Mr. Sunshine
    • The World of International Noir
    • Romance of Our Parents
    • The Grand Hotel Saga
    • Don't Be Bad
    • The Handmaiden
    • Caramel / Sukkar banat
    • Morning for the Osone Family 1946
    • Fritz Lang's M
    • La Bete Humaine
  • Political Rx
    • Rebellion
    • Women in the White House
    • The Ides of March
    • By The People: The Election of Barack Obama
  • Culture Centric Cinema
    • Horror Noire
    • Self Made
    • Little
    • Hidden Figures
    • Fences
    • #Whiterose: Identity, Secrecy & BD Wong
    • Imitation of Life 1934
    • Frazzled Hair Wars
    • Soul Men
  • Indie Films
    • Scotland, PA
    • Adrift in Soho
    • H4
    • Paint It Red
    • HAMLET in the Golden Vale
    • Trouble is My Business
    • The Browsing Effect
    • Indie Films 2018 >
      • Clara's Ghost
      • Cold War
      • To Dream
      • The New Romantic
      • Here and Now
      • Unlovable
      • The Landing
      • I CAN I WILL I DID
      • Choosing Signs
      • Iron Brothers
      • Across the River
      • Josephine Doe
      • Sunset
      • SUNSET: Interview
      • The Forgiven
      • Kill Order
      • Midnighters
      • Half Magic
      • Looking Glass
      • Entanglement
      • Crazy Famous
      • Stratton
      • As You Like It
      • Hunter
  • eau de cinematic clunker
    • Avatar 2: The Way of Water
    • The Irishman
    • Almost Friends
    • The Osiris Child
    • Bushwick
    • Pilgrimage
    • Fun Mom Dinner
    • Once Upon A Time in Venice
    • Aaron's Blood
    • Black Rose
    • Lucy 2014
    • Transcendence 2014
  • Book Reviews
    • Conversations with Ray Bradbury
    • A Woman's View
    • Dark Dames
    • Auntie Mame's Favorite Son: Patrick Dennis
    • I'm A Lebowski, You're A Lebowski
  • Documentary Picks & Pans
    • Black Ballerina
    • Leftover Women
    • Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind
    • Unrest
    • Be Natural
    • Farmsteaders
    • Bombshell : Hedy Lamarr
    • Jungle
    • Who the F**k is that Guy?
    • The Man in the Camo Jacket
    • Spirit Game: Pride of a Nation
    • Burlesque: Heart of the Glitter Tribe
    • Listen to Me Marlon
    • I Am Not Your Negro
    • The Girls in the Band
    • TCM's Trailblazing Women in Film
    • The Honor Diaries
    • Side By Side
    • American Masters : Salinger
    • The Story of Film
  • LGBTQ pov
    • Making Sweet Tea
    • Drag Queens & Trannies
    • Milk 2009
  • Silent Classics
    • Charles Epting: Silent Film Historian
    • Hollywood's Silent Film Grave Huntress
    • La Boheme 1926
    • The Blot 1921
    • Pandora's Box
    • Don Juan
  • Art House Flicks
    • Birth
    • I'm Not There
  • Kid's Korner
    • Pokemon Detective Pikachu
    • Hotel Transylvania 3 : Summer Vacation
    • The Incredibles 2
    • Sherlock Gnomes
    • Paddington 2
    • Lego Batman: A Super Hero in Crisis
    • SING: Cine's 2017 Oscar Pick
    • Summer Flicks 2016
    • Kung Fu Panda 3 / 2016
  • Cine's Friends
  • Hollywood Award Shows
    • Cine's Fantasy Golden Globes 2021
    • Oscar 2020
    • For Your Consideration 2018
    • For Your Consideration 2017
    • 50 Shades of Oscar 2016
    • 2016 Golden Globes
    • 2015 Emmys Redux
    • 2014 Oscars: Plantation Politics
    • 2014 Emmys : A Dash of Racism
    • 2013 Emmys : Hold the Mayo
  • Archives
Picture

Boss: A Political Neo-Noir  in 3 Acts

by Paulette Reynolds
February 7, 2017 *

STARZ
​Available on DVD


2011 - 2012 / Two Seasons

Director: Mario Van Peebles / Jim McKay
Screenplay: Farhad Safina
​

Starring Kelsey Grammer/Tom Kane, Connie Nielsen/Meredith Kane, Kathleen Robertson/Kitty O’Neill, Hannah Ware/Emma Kane, Jeff Hephner/Ben Zajac, Rotimi Akinosho/Darius, Sanaa Lathan/Mona Fredricks
Picture
Politicians are by nature a strange breed of actor, peddler, and chieftain, all coexisting beneath a paper-thin veneer of compassion for their constituents. Most political stories serve us characters that are affable glad-handers with a dent or two in their armor. The cable program, Boss, however, brings us a tragic tale of Tom Kane, the embattled Mayor of Chicago, surrounded by the usual political hacks and hounds, snapping at his heels for special favors and a chance to be in his inner circle. The irony is that Boss Kane has no inner circle, since he treats his assistants, lovers, colleagues, competitors, and his own family – all with equal aloofness and barely concealed distain.
Picture
Kelsey Grammer, usually going for more likeable roles, breaks out with Boss, wearing the Kane character like a second skin that chafes with every move and burns with every caustic demand. Yet, hidden at the core of this Machiavellian machine is a personal crisis that occasionally humanizes him: Tom Kane is suffering from a neurological dementia that promises to render him physically and mentally dependent upon others – and within a very short time. Kane desperately tries to micro-manage his illness while mending fences with his estranged daughter, Emma, and keeping the feuding sharks adrift.
Picture
The notable Starz cast includes Connie Nielsen, as Kane’s doubting wife, Meredith, Hannah Ware as the conflicted Emma, Kathleen Robertson as the mayor’s personal aide, Kitty, (who loves getting personal), Jeff Hephner is the smug Ben Zajac, a new kid on the block, Troy Garity as principled journalist Sam Miller, stubbornly trying to uncover the truth about Kane’s corrupt administration, Martin Donovan as Ezra Stone, Kane’s right-hand man, and Rotimi Akinosho as Emma’s love interest, Darius, the drug dealer with a heart of gold. A taunt musical score by Brian Reitzell adds just the right tone of desolation for the characters as they act out their collective tale of woe and cynicism.
Picture
The only weak link to this otherwise excellent production is the Emma-Darius storyline. Screen writer Farhad Safina has a recovering drug addict who now serves as a community minister, spouting some of the most depressing sermons while sexing it up with a street-wise thug. Both Ware and Akinosho appear to be struggling with the material, possibly because they haven’t had much screen experience. 
Picture
Billed as a political drama, Boss plays more like a Shakespearean net-noir play in three acts, with everyone stuck on gloomy. Directors Mario Van Peebles and Jim McKay, together with co-producer Gus Van Sant, lay bare an environs where the only smiles and feel-good statements are reserved for the 24 hour news cycle. Only young jackal Zajac enjoys himself – and that’s because he’s too new to know any better. The old adage “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”, does apply here, because the morose atmosphere is exactly what makes Boss – and Kelsey Grammar – so fascinating to watch. There is no endearing role model to pass down any words of wisdom, nor are there any lofty ideals to inspire a young civil servant. And that’s exactly the point – the constituents, their laws, and society’s ethical considerations only serve to get in the way of a clean kill in the political arena.
Picture
This reviewer mourned the loss of Boss when Starz abruptly cancelled the series after just two seasons.  For a short time an urban legend about a possible film treatment was cause for rejoicing; but alas, the curtain was swiftly lowered and all that remains is silence.
*This review originally appeared in OutsideHollywoodland.com - November, 2011.

COPYRIGHT 2012/2017. Paulette Reynolds.  All CineMata Movie Madness blog articles, reviews, faux interviews, commentary, and the Cine Mata character are under the sole ownership of Paulette Reynolds.  All intellectual and creative rights reserved.  

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.