A hilarious film that succeeds at its intention, being a fun comedy. But doesn't succeed quite as much as a film, especially not a Lars von Trier film. This film was great, the writing is amazing and the performances were wonderful. But the strange visual style and lack in heart keep this from being a truly great movie.

LOL, the funniest 01 hour: and 38 minutes ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It seems odd, based on his oeuvre of controversial films, to watch a comedy directed by Lars vonTrier but, strangely enough, The Boss of It All works. The owner of an IT company fabricates a president of the organization in order to shift blame when he has to make difficult decisions. As a result, when it comes time to sell the company, he hires an actor to portray the fictitious president in order to avoid the wrath of the employees. The concept is clearly absurd, but the humor, dry as a bone, works throughout the film as the actor uncovers a long thread of deceit and dishonesty. The movie is hindered by some truly bizarre editing choices and some less than traditional framing of shots, but von Trier clearly has an ear for comedy and even takes a poke at himself with a reference to his Dogme 95 school of filmmaking.

Smart. A different, more intelligent approach to an office comedy. Complex in the way it builds upon and unravels its own premise.

Uma comédia pautada no absurdo, mas que ancora suas situações em neuroses realistas nos colegas de uma empresa. No entanto, tais neuroses nunca seriam expostas por pessoas reais, e a beleza de "O Grande Chefe" é justamente deixar fluir o comportamento humano até suas últimas consequências, enquanto ironicamente o comportamento de um ator medíocre é analisado sob a ótica da incompetência. - cinetenisverde.com.br

A funny office comedy with strange characters with weird personalities. Maybe a common office history if you analize the situation

While hardly one of Von Triers most daring or original films, The Boss Of It All still manages to provide some funny and interesting characters that still transmit many of Von Triers ideas and prove once again the sharpness and and strangeness of his writing.

Lars von Trier once again surprised me with his witty writing and sharp direction. Direktøren for det hele is about an IT company where the so called "Boss" invented a plan to control his office by creating a persona of a CEO that never existed so he could blame all the problems on the imaginary persona. But then the owner had to sell the company, the buyer requested to meet the owner in person. So he decided to hire an actor instead to play the role. I love the ensemble, it's very clever and the dialogues were hilarious. I especially liked von Trier's attempt of using automavision, it's an unique idea that allows the camera to select the coordination of the shots and audio processing at random. It's a clever little gem that should not be missed by Lars von Trier fans.

Genius! A low-key, Danish version of Office Space with fly-on the-wall style camera work. Watch out for Sarah Lund ;-)

A nice change of pace for von Trier.

Pretentious & unengaging, Comedy,Von Trier style

The strangely subdued blip in Lars von Trier's career. This screwball comedy has some of the best Danish acting talent, but a storyline that is rather tedious. Read the full review here: http://366movies.com/2012/11/28/324boss/

Von trier a cette façon de toujours ramener les tangentes de l'histoire à un seul et principal thème: le malaise. Si von Trier parle ici d'une « comédie inintelligente où il n'y a rien à dire », c'est bien entendu en comparaison avec l'univers de ses autres réalisations, et encore là, je ne serais même pas prêt à en dire autant. Certes, le sujet abordé est peut-être moins lourd qu'à l'habitude, mais on retrouve toujours cette idée d'inhumanité chez les personnages de von Trier, une inhumanité auquelle le spectateur est confronté, impuissant. L'histoire commence alors, comme à son habitude, bien anodinement, pour se métamorphoser en une comédie dramatique incroyablement complexe, complexité qui pourrait bien engendrer la souffrance, voire la mort, chez chacun des personnages. Et j'exagère à peine. Et, God, les 10 premières minutes sont pissantes.

Coincé entre deux suites cinématographiques ambitieuses (sa trilogie américaine avortée et sa trilogie "de genre" toujours en cours), "Le direktor" marqua un bref retour de Lars von Trier aux plaisirs simples du cinéma (enfin, aussi simple que puisse être une idée de Von Trier). Planqué sur un chariot élévateur à l'extérieur d'un bâtiment, le Danois filme une farce en milieu professionnel grâce à un nouveau procédé cinématographique - "l'Automavision" - qui permet aux caméras de paramétrer automatiquement les angles de vue en fonction de la position des acteurs. Un mode de tournage aléatoire et déshumanisé pour figurer le chaos et l'entropie qui régissent les relations humaines en général et professionnelles en particulier ? La métaphore est sympathique même si elle fait un peu mal aux yeux ! Toujours aussi à l'aise dans le maniement de cet humour à froid propre aux Scandinaves, Von Trier reste également un maître de l'artifice quant il s'agit de contrecarrer toute compréhension trop rapide et unilatérale de sa nouvelle lubie. S'il décoche quelques coups de griffes bien sentis aux prétentions d'un certain milieu artistique (dont il est lui-même un pur représentant) à travers le personnage de la doublure engagée pour jouer le rôle du chef d'entreprise, Von Trier examine à la notion de responsabilité personnelle : jusqu'à quel point doit-on piétiner ses propres valeurs pour obtenir l'approbation de l'autorité supérieure ? La question peut évidemment se poser en milieu professionnel mais également au sein d'un système plus large, qu'il soit économique, culturel ou politique. Paradoxalement, il est tout à fait possible de négliger totalement cet aspect du film et de se limiter à savourer son humour absurde et parfois décapant, comme dans un sketch à rallonge de "Caméra café". Y a-t-il au final une "bonne" façon de considérer ce "film de Lars von Trier sans Lars von Trier derrière la caméra" ? Un chef d'oeuvre insoupçonné, une simple récréation entre des travaux plus consistants, un manifeste militant, une comédie de boulevard ? Chacun en pensera ce qu'il voudra, à la condition précise, comme le réalisateur l'annonce lui-même en préambule, de ne pas prendre tout cela trop au sérieux.

Automavision did a decent job.

Frivolous, but does what it sets out to do with it's absurd premise.

not the laugh out loud kinda comedy i had hoped to kick back with, this was more dry wit with an occasional chuckle. funny anyhow, but i certainly didn't get as much of a kick from it as lars von trier did.

Captivating and entertaning throughout. Cinema magic in its purest form.

A truly off-beat little film with a dark, droll sense of humor about relationships, business and itself, von Trier isn't afraid to poke fun at both his own film-making and the comedy genre in this one. The editing is disturbing, jump-cutting at moments of tension to increase the aura of nervousness. Not as emotionally disturbing as much of von Trier's work and surprisingly good-natured considering the man at the helm, it nonetheless transgresses against conventions of film-making while repeatedly warning the viewer that doing so ultimately leads to disaster. Very clever stuff and thoroughly enjoyable.

Kristoffer, the centerpiece in Lars von Trier's spacey satire "The Boss of it All", is the most reliable of narrators by staying the same actor-for-hire as introduced at the beginning of the film, however indirect. See, this dude, Ravn (Peter Gantzler), running an IT company in the curtained background, needs a faux executive to convince his staff members there really is a god watching from higher over the outlay. Thus, born is Svend, a cuff-linked ghost turned improv giant as the group of five quickly note the strings of the operation. Yet, perhaps the most spoken of the band, Lise (Iben Hjejle), says nothing to the others of the depressed, self-declared homosexual Kristoffer's half-assed Ponzi. So, like, if Ravn has the brains to work a hand entirely from shadows, why hip his whore last-minute the game's authenticity, ultimately, falls solely on his shoulders? And then drop his regular nervous smile when he finds Kristoffer becomes emotionally attached to the well-being of the skins inside the wheel? One look at the flailing grimaces on Jens Albinus, who plays Kristoffer with passive charm the character's bitter relationship with his own credibility comes inherently without, and it doens't matter a lick. The writer and director von Trier doesn't smear "The Boss of it All" with any actual definition, but the melancholy filmmaking goes into relapse if only temporarily for a campus of funny, likable people who give the personal conflict straight feeling. That's all the movie holds up, and it works more than it should. It's a scapegoat you can't help believing.