Office Space (1999)

Absolutely Fantastic

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Office Space is a comedy I come back to every year or so. It's hard to believe it's now almost 18-years (as of 2018) since it came out. It's still wickedly funny in spite of age. Probably because it deconstructs the banality and ridiculous nature of corporate low-level thankless employment it hits a sweet spot which still rings true. Ron Livingston is excellent as Peter who is most definitely in a rut at work and in life. He has excellent co-stars, and sympathetic co-workers, in David Herman as Michael Bolton and Ajay Naidu as Samir. They make a good team these three as they all hate their jobs at Initech. Initech is a generic large company with all the plenty of goofy employees which the movie exaggerates to perfection. In this group there's gold in boss Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole) and disgrunted misfit (actually fired several years earlier unknown to him) Milton (Stephen Root). Jennifer Anniston is on board too as Peter's love interest and she makes the most of limited screen time. So, the cast is really well-suited for Mike Judge's lampooning of banal employment. The humor is laced through and through and it hits almost every time simply because it takes elements of truth we can all relate to and exponentially multiplies it to perfection. It never goes so far as to loose the grounding that everything it pokes fun at has a real world truth. I even get a kick out of how the stupidy of theme restaurants which gets thrown in! This movie has depth of layering as it connects the different pieces quite well. Something as simple as a copying machine malfunction becomes hilarious because we all can relate. This is a great comedy because it exposes the absurdity often found in reality, and does so brilliantly. I'm glad I watched it for who knows tenth time and I'm sure in a year or so I'll do it all over again. That's my highest recomendation.

Almost everyone has experienced the agony of the daily commute until it becomes pure mockery like Peter Gibbons' morning drive, slowly progressing inch by inch, 'racing' the old man on the sidewalk in a walker, taking the initiative to switch lanes only to find that it is the other lane that is advancing. Peter signs almost knowingly, defeated, accepting that this is the universe's will and how it is laughing at him. The company he works at, Initech, is a glorious mess. Two separate supervisors come with news of the same issue, highlighting how nobody really knows what their role is (later, in a scene of such piercing comedy and discomfort, a long time worker has trouble explaining exactly what he does for the company). They drone on with those same corporate sayings: "Looks like somebody's got a case of the Mondays!", in a tone that is much too cheery for Mondays. The colleagues are made up of colourful personalities that include a bright red parrot and what is basically a cave troll on a glitched payroll. The boss of the joint strolls by every other minute and checks the locks on the cubicles, and lengthens sentences with a dry, entirely too self-satisfied tone (the irony is that we never see him do any work either). But this is all okay, because Friday is Hawaiian shirt day and this will definitely provoke excitement and more importantly, a feeling of urgency and motivation to get those reports in. On a smaller level Judge also extends these critiques to the retail world, so that even the smallest restaurant is not immune from this corporate soul-sucking logic. Joanna must wear no less than 15 items of what is officially called 'flair', although this is perceived to be the minimum required in a thinly veiled threat. Forget getting in your TPS reports on time with the proper cover sheet; the restaurant managers berates with the self-importance of a high level executive. Buttons on uniforms are serious business, and you'd best heed this warning if you want to rise up the chain of command from lowly waitress. So the first half of Office Space has plenty of comedic and satirical potential, even more so now than at the turn of the century. Every character is a magnified caricature, every birthday cake and song plays like a death vigil. Beneath comedy there is always truth, which has led to responses to the film in the vein of "I quit my because of this movie" and the like, which is pretty much akin to saying you started a fight club because of Fight Club. The problem with this is that the film's events never come to a resolution, so unless you are content to fall into an equally monotonous blue collar job, that epiphany is pretty much useless. The gleeful irony set up here is that they constantly complain about their corporate prison existence yet they are also bound to for sustenance and material living. But that seemingly doesn't apply to Peter, who indulges himself in what is basically a power fantasy, where he strolls around the cubicles in flip flops, plays Tetris, openly flaunts his carelessness, and in return, is ... promoted. Perfectly humorous and in line with what we have expected from this crazy organisation, but the film can't have Peter becoming another one of those management drones, so it becomes a battle between the little guys and the establishment, and how they are taking back what is rightfully theirs. It's all a little smug, and when they eventually see the errors of their ways, too cookie-cutter to really have an impact.

Ever wondered why are we here ? is there an edge to space and time or why are you stuck in a crummy job 9 to 5 ? well maybe this movie doesn't have the answer but at least it's a reflection of the cubicle hell that many have had to endure in the modern age.It's like the theatre of the absurd and I bet you've come across many of the characters in tis movie in the real life work place.Milton demonstrates how misfits can in one sense survive in those environments (even if they are in denial).Also be wary of those efficiency consultants that turn up trying to increase efficiency at the office, they're there to sack you ! remember to creep around the cubicles like a ninja at 5pm so the boss doesn't spot you and stall you, thaaaat wouuuulllddd beee greeeeaaaaaaat ! come in on Sunday, thanks !

Peter Gibbons is a man tired of your life and work, in a moment of utter exhaustion and sadness, undergoes a hypnosis session, completely changing their behavior. With that, he begins to completely rebel jobs and in life, doing whatever want, whenever want. Everything seems to go wrong and be dismissed - for just cause -, right? No, it's like that than everything starts to go right with him, getting everything, and, even without caring, still works.And so goes the film has enough funny scenes, many simple, but some really forced, in my opinion. But even so, the spectator can take some good laughter. The problem is that the film, despite the funny scenes, ends up not exploring much that could exploit, making not have much history and not much depth on each piece of the film, maybe because the film is short, there is not much between your rebel by the end, it's all very quick and simplistic, without much exploration of thematic or characters. Besides, the movie has absence of logic in some parts, especially in various situations where his boss, Bill Lumbergh, even seeing Peter do things that would be layoffs in any job, do not dismiss it. But, of course, if it happens, the film would lose big part the theme.The film's it. It's cool, fun to watch, yields good laugh, but do not expect anything too deep or well produced. But to a situation of just relax and laugh, worth watching.