"That's a nice-a donut."
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Office Space (1999)
One of the funniest and most quotable comedies of the 1990s was a complete dud at the box office when it was released. Although it was directed by Mike Judge, who had previously found fame with the groundbreaking MTV sensation Beavis and Butthead and then King of the Hill (which has since become the most underrated series on television today), and had a very familiar face in Jennifer Aniston from Friends, Office Space was almost a total failure. If it had been made in the days of the studio system and before home video it would likely have been lost forever. But that wasn't the case and due to a variety of factors, in part thanks to regular showings on Comedy Central, it quickly built positive word of mouth and a loyal audience that has made it the perfect example of a cult classic.
In this tale of office workers who hate their jobs, Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) lives a dull, repetitive existence as a man who must comb through lines of computer code to prepare for the coming Year 2000 glitch (i.e., to save space, old programmers would use a two-digit year, but without a fix when 2000 happened many computer systems would think it was 1900). He is constantly bombarded with inane tasks and requests, and constantly fears that his boss Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole) will ask him to come in on the weekend. With his two coworkers (David Herman and Ajay Naidu) they regularly gripe about their worklife, but realize that they are powerless to do anything. That is, until one day when an efficiency expert is brought in to improve things. Aniston is Joanna, Peter's Romantic interest, and a waitress at a local restaurant in a sort of sideplot that nicely matches the theme of empowerment at work.
There are plenty of hilarious moments in the film, from the need to put a cover memo on the TPS reports to somebody having a case of the Mondays, to Michael Bolton hatred and red Swingline staplers. Gary Cole is brilliant as the evil antithesis of what most people would like to see in a boss or manager. He manages to best his hilarious role as Mike Brady in the farcical Brady Bunch movies with such deadpan droning of phrases like "great" and "I'm gonna have to ask you to..." and "okay," it is everything we hate and revile about mindless office managers. Livingston, meanwhile, is ideal as the day-in, day-out worker who suddenly gets fed up with his job. It is very easy to relate to his laziness; when he tells the story about how his high school guidance counselor would ask him what he would like to do if he had a million dollars and he says "nothing," we can all relate.
One main fault might be that it veers sharply await from the highly relevant, fierce wit and satire on the modern day workplace and moves into a standard plot of bringing down the man and beating the system. That's not to say that it isn't still first-rate, but it is just isn't as funny in the second half, once things change direction after a surreal meeting that Peter has with the efficiency experts (the Bobs). The coda, however, is priceless. If you don't find at least something funny about Office Space then there is something wrong with you. Note that the Milton animated shorts, of which the story is based, are unfortunately not included on the recent special edition DVD release. Even so, it is still highly worth it.
The Verdict: B+.
Michael Bentley 11:17 AM
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