Office Space
Directed By Mike Judge
Fox
Starring Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston
There is a new work environment out there, I call it "the cubicle culture". Every employee comes in to sit
in a tiny desk surrounded by 4 walls. People will sell their house for the window seat. I know the window
seat. I worked in a cubicle last Summer myself and I defended that seat from any attack, which usually
meant whining "no, my seat!" like a spoiled four year old. Immature, but hey, whatever gets you the window seat.
Of course, the only problem with the window seat is that its owner usually scrapes at the window
trying to get out(kind of like the dogs and cats in those little pet shop cages).
This is the kind of culture that Mike Judge(creator of "Beavis and Butthead" and "King Of The Hill") takes
on in his first live-action film. He not only hits the target about the office, but I was reminded of
other jobs that I'd had as well. Like the time I worked at a movie theater and had 10 managers(yes, 10 managers)
and they would talk to me 5 minutes after one another, each telling me to do a different task. Even though
"Office Space" is a small indie-like effort, Judge is completely accurate and absolutely hilarious, coming
up with new ideas and even taking a piece of plot from an old film and admitting he took it.
The story revolves around one Peter Gibbons(Ron Livingston, who reminds me quite a bit of "Chasing Amy"'s Jason Lee),
a computer programmer who absolutely hates his job. He's not going to do anything about it, but in a very funny
rant he simply explains that his worst days are yet to come since every day of his life is currently worse than
the previous one.
Peter decides to visit an occupational hypnotherapist with his girlfriend, with unexpected results. In the middle
of hypnotizing Peter, the therapist has quite the heart attack. Peter emerges a new man, ready to take on the job
he hates by doing one thing: nothing. He was told to come in not only on Saturday but on Sunday; he chooses to sleep
the entire day. He skips another day to go fishing and proceeds to clean the fish on his desk(which had me laughing
hysterically). In a wonderful bit of rebellion, he simply walks right by his boss as he explains some inane task.
Who joins Peter in everyday life? There are his friends, Michael Bolton(no, not that Michael Bolton) and Samir, a couple
of programmers who are about to find themselves at the mercy of two "efficency experts"(or, as they should be called,
"people who fire people"). Strangely, these two find much to like in Peter's attitude toward's work. He's given a promotion:
to upper management. But when he finds that his two friends are being let go, it's time to take the ultimate revenge:
in a plot taken from "Superman 3"(I loved how the movie doesn't hesitate to say it got the idea someplace else), the group
decides to use a computer virus to take the fractions of cents that the company earns and send it to a bank account they own.
Of course, this doesn't work exactly right. I'll leave what happens out, but I thought the movie handled this area brilliantly.
The only thing I didn't care for was Jennifer Aniston's part. Aniston plays a waitress at the local diner who becomes Peter's
girlfriend after the hypnosis; he gets the courage to ask her out. She spends the rest of the film with a few lines here and there,
mostly in a wasted role as Peter's moral compass, telling him that the plot to steal from his job is "wrong."
"Office Space" is one of those films that has slow points, but there's always a great moment around the corner. The very best
moment(and I'm convinced one of the year's best) is when Peter steals the office fax machine(which annoys everyone and never works)
and drags it out to a field where Michael, Samir and Peter proceed to beat it with a baseball bat. There's also some great
characters in "Office Space": Milton, a dweeby mumbling drone, who's played by Stephen Root(who, as far as I'm concerned, is
the best supporting actor on TV in "Newsradio" as his Jimmy James character), Diedrich Bader(looking very different from his "Drew
Carey Show" character and Gary Cole(who is a little too perfect as Peter's boss).
"Office Space" is a small film in Hollywood standards. I wouldn't even say it, but the cinematography(consistently a little on the
strange and grainy side) kept that thought in my mind. A lot of people will think it's a live action version of "Dilbert", but it's not.
"Dilbert" is currently running in a 30 minute TV show which is nowhere near as funny as the comic strips. "Office Space" doesn't always
work in its 90 minute frame, but I was never bored and I was always entertained. It's offbeat, kind of silly looking and frequently
odd. But it's real and it's right; it doesn't really find the need to exaggerate the scenes in the office; if you've ever worked in a
similar one you'll find most of this film hilariously true.
There are great little creative touches as well. Judge uses gangsta rap throughout, something that you wouldn't think would work, but
suprise: it works perfectly, adding that perfect background score to the group's fight against the company(the establishment.)
Again, "Office Space" doesn't always work. There are jokes that fall a bit flat at times, but overall I'd have to recommend the film;
it's accurate in its portrayal of office life and the performances were enjoyable. I was quite interested to see if Judge could pull off
the step from doing animation to working with real people and suprise: it's not a great looking film, but the humor and great characters
that Judge knows how to create still rise to the surface. Definitely a winning comedy.
