The Good Boss

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an 92% rating based on 112 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10. The critics consensus reads: "Led by Javier Bardem's charismatic performance and writer-director Fernando León de Aranoa's sharp humor, The Good Boss is a workplace satire worthy of promotion."^[34] On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 63 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[35]

Guy Lodge of Variety gave the film a positive review and wrote, "Fernando León de Aranoa's corporate satire is too long and languidly paced to pull off its farcical inclinations, but it gets by on its star's magnetism."^[2]

Jordan Mintzer of The Hollywood Reporter also gave the film a positive review and wrote, "Slickly entertaining, considering its rather weighty subject matter..."^[1]

Javier Zurro of El Español deemed the film to be the best Aranoa film since the 2002 Mondays in the Sun and the best Spanish comedy in (many) years, a genre dominated for some time now by either family comedies or remakes of international titles, generally lacking in original proposals.^[36]

Raquel Hernández Luján of HobbyConsolas gave the film 90 out of 100 points, deeming it "excellent", praising the "sharp script", the (actors') direction, and the "careful mise-en-scène".^[37]

Quim Casas of El Periódico de Catalunya considered the film to be "a good tragicomedy of social criticism that could well be the counterpart to Mondays in the Sun".^[38]

Jonathan Holland of Screen Daily considered the film to be "slickly-made and entertaining, but ultimately a little déjà vu".^[9] Plotwise, he deemed the film to be "as smooth and efficient as a well-run factory".^[9]

Mirito Torreiro of Fotogramas gave The Good Boss 4 out of 5 stars, highlighting an immense, eminent Javier Bardem in one of his most dazzling performances to date ("he is, quite simply, the movie"), also considering that Aranoa offers viewers a dark comedy displaying a grim portrayal of labour relations.^[39]

Reviewing for Cinemanía, Santiago Alverú gave the film 5 out of 5 stars, writing that the political commitment from León de Aranoa and Javier Bardem mixed with the expressive talent of both of them have created a highly entertaining vindication, concluding that "except for Amancio Ortega, the whole of Spain should like it".^[40]

The AACCE selected the film as the Spanish entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards over Mediterraneo: The Law of the Sea and Parallel Mothers,^[41] and it made the 15-film pre-nomination shortlist in December 2021.^[42] Ultimately, it was not nominated. It also chose the film as the Spanish submission for Best Ibero-American Film at the 64th Ariel Awards.^[43]

Accolades