[Jock’s Pick]

Boss Level (2020) is an action-comedy movie about a man who is stuck in a time loop in which he dies every day, a premise used in buckets of other films. In fact, it’s not even the first movie that Jock has picked for movie night with this setup. The time loop is a classic literary trope that’s meant to focus on a character’s journey. They’re forced to live the same day over and over until they learn something and change as a person–the only way to escape the time loop. The more trouble you are, the longer you are stuck in purgatory. What makes time loop narratives so compelling is not only the exploration of being in an infinite, repetitive hell, but also the exploration of the character who is forced to change. What lesson do they need to learn and how different will they be at the end from where they started?

Boss Level combines the classic time loop with video game flavor and creates a high-budget film experience that feels like watching one of your parents fail to beat the same level over and over again on a Thursday night while the other makes dinner (swearing included). We first meet former special-ops officer Roy on a regular day in his time loop in which he is rudely awoken by a scream and a guy with a machete. He easily dispatches the assassin through muscle-memory (notably while shirtless, so you can see those muscles) and breaks the fourth wall by cheekily narrating at us with an exposition dump. A large part of the film’s plot revolves around the mystery of how Roy got into this time loop in the first place, and sadly, this is the only thing that Roy has to learn while in his time loop. Roy is not put in the loop because he needs to learn anything or because he needs to relive the same horrible day over and over until he becomes a better person. Roy is put into the time loop because he’s the only macho-man macho enough to escape the time loop and put down the Big Bad.

Boss Level does have a few things going for it. The fights and chases are well-choregraphed. We also have fun characters such as Guan Yin (Selina Lo), a sword-wielding assassin with a funny catchphrase for her kills, and Dai Feng (Michelle Yeoh), a famous martial artist who is, of course, the wise master who trains the guy to save the day. While I will always be annoyed by this trope, I will also always enjoy watching Michelle Yeoh train, fight, or spar with other characters on screen. Unfortunately, none of the characters have an actual personality, including our main cast. Furthermore, Dai Feng, the legendary martial artist, is reduced to a convenient plot device (rather than an actual character) to help Roy on his heroic mission when she agrees to train him for hundreds of resets until he can finally defeat her in combat.

Empty as it may seem, the story is not entirely lacking in substance. Roy’s core values are very traditionally masculine: being strong and handsome, being a good fighter and killing bad guys, fathering a son, getting with hot girls, etc. This means almost nothing for the plot, but we do get some heartwarming moments between Roy and his son, Joe. Even though Joe does not know Roy is his father and only knows of him as a family friend (this is not explained at any point), they still have a friendly relationship. He shows interests in Joe’s hobbies and wants to be involved in his life, and he spends many days of his time loop just hanging out with him. It’s also his love for his son that gives him some motivation other than just pure survival.

Apart from the obvious story flaws (no character development, one-dimensional characters, telling-not-showing, and a handful of harmful tropes and clichés), my main problem with Boss Level is simply that I am not the target audience for this film. This is a movie made by men, about men, and for men about how cool and macho this cool, manly guy is and how he saves the whole world by being the coolest, bestest, strongest, most macho man of all. It doesn’t even pass the Bechdel test. And every time I started to have fun, something so painfully for men would happen that it would take me out of it.

(Spoilers) The worst of this is the second time Roy defeats Guan Yin. This happens in a display of steamy, intimate fight choreography where they almost seem to dance and he stabs her with her own sword as he pulls her into an embrace. Then, he bridal-carries her away from gunfire as if he suddenly cares about her life, even though he was overjoyed by killing her the day before and has never shown any intention of sparing the lives of any of the assassins. Guan Yin is literally being sexualized while she is being killed. This scene grossed me out so much, it was the final straw.

This movie isn’t particularly impressive or particularly bad, but it carelessly fumbles the trope it is built on and offers nothing of actual substance or merit. Plus, there is no space in the target audience for women. Even shirtless Frank Grillo is clearly for the boys; we all know there’s a distinct difference between a hot guy in the male gaze vs. the female gaze. If you like action movies and want to have a movie date with a guy who might be kinda boring and has very strict traditional male values, go ahead and kill an hour and forty minutes with Boss Level. As forgettable as it is, it won’t ruin your entire day.

Rating: 💬 I have now seen this movie.

My best friends and I (known affectionately as Goblin House) have a regular movie night where we all sit down together and watch a movie one of us has chosen. Most of these reviews will come from a Goblin Movie Night, so they will be tagged with the nickname of the Goblin who picked the movie.