The Woman from A.U.N.T.I.E.

Spy is glorious roller coaster romp of slap stick and wise cracking humour, of which you will not want to miss a second. The timing, the dialogue, the narrative, the self mocking satire ("it wasn't the car that was on fire, I was on fire" etc) are all top notch. This must have been a joy of movie to be part of the crew or cast. The sense of fun is squeaking out of every scene.

As someone who has adored spy movies from a very young age, it was great to see the anti-hero played so well by Melissa McCarthy (although she is not quite the all anti-hero you might think she is...!) Some great inverting of narrative tricks with some really well crafted action scenes as well. I do hope there is at least one sequel... Go see this!

Much of the humour in the film hinges on smashing stereotypes and challenging our superficial assumptions about what people can / can't/ should / shouldn't do. It shows the power of comedy to puncture inflated ideas about what is possible or correct.

Being able to make people laugh at life, and even at themselves (as Michael McIntyre is so good at too) is a golden skill for leaders to have. It is a skill not easy to develop, but it can be. We admire leaders who have a natural (?) ability to make us laugh because important things can be said more easily. But what if you are not a 'natural'? You could go on a course to learn... perhaps. How aware are you of what you say that does make people laugh... could you build on that?

Where is your comedy muscle, have you exercised it recently? 

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This is the ninety sixth of my 2014/2015 series of blogs about leadership ideas to be found in the movies of our time. You can read here as why I began doing this (with an update at the end of 2014). Please subscribe to this blog if you want to read more. Thanks. Click the label 'film' to see all the others.