It's time for me to write about one of
my favorite movies. I've loved it since way before I started keeping
this movie journal, re-watching it every year or so. Lately, I've
seen a lot of good films that I rated in the 4-star range, and I've
been asking myself why I don't give some of these movies 5 stars.
Re-watching “Office Space” reminded me that 5 stars is reserved
for a truly superior class of movie, the kind that gives me nothing
but sheer joy from beginning to end.
Ron Livingston plays Peter, a bored,
depressed office drone. He starts every day in bumper-to-bumper
traffic, then toils away at tedious computer tasks in a cubicle.
Waiting at the end of the day is a thin-walled, featureless apartment
and a shrew of a girlfriend. Watching his youth slip away under
these conditions is so depressing that Peter agrees to try an
occupational hypnotherapist. When the therapist keels over
mid-procedure, Peter is left in a prolonged hypnotized state that
changes his entire attitude. He achieves his lifelong dream of
“doing nothing” and stops going to work. He also drops his
cheating girlfriend and asks out the cute waitress he has been
obsessed with. “New Peter” seems on the road to financial ruin,
but he is happy for the first time in his life.
Peter's bosses are understandably
ready to fire him, but the workforce consultants brought in by his
company to help with layoffs are actually impressed by his newfound
confidence and candor, describing him as “a straight-shooter with
upper-level management written all over him.” While Peter gets
offered a promotion, his buddies Samir and Michael Bolton (no
relation to the singer) get laid off. To avenge this injustice, the
three cook up a computer program to slowly steal money from the
company.
Few artworks have captured the misery
of “1st World Problems” better than “Office Space.”
Peter has an apartment, a car, and a job in an air-conditioned
office, which makes him a wealthy man by the standards of the
majority of humans on this earth. So why isn't he happy? He
experiences the misery of having things that don't feed his soul, but
are just good enough to keep him from seeking something better.
Hypnosis frees him to think about what actually makes him happy, and
working in a cubicle ain't it!
“Office Space” is Mike Judge's
first live-action film, and like his later movies ("Idiocracy"
and "Extract"), it did poorly at the box office. The studio had
no idea how to market a quirky, workplace comedy with a gangsta-rap
soundtrack. Even the movie poster sucked, a picture of a guy covered
in post-it notes that, from a distance, looked like Big Bird from
“Sesame Street”. Fortunately, the movie found its legs on video,
becoming a cult classic of epic proportions.
There is so much to love about this
film; every scene is a delight. There's Michael Bolton, the
co-worker with a chip on his shoulder about having the same name as
the “no-talent ass-clown” singer. (Michael Bolton the singer, by
the way, has come to embrace the movie, even doing a funnyordie skit
where he acts out some of Michael Bolton's scenes.) There's the
often-quoted passive-aggressive boss, Lumbergh: “That'd be great,
m-kay?” Then, of course, there's the most gangsta scene in a
movie, ever, where they take the fax machine out in a field and
destroy it.
“Office Space” is a character
study in how different people approach work. Peter's friend, Samir,
an immigrant, is just happy to have a job. When Peter asks, “What
if we're still doing this when we're 50?,” Samir's response is, “It
would be nice to have that kind of job security.” Tom Smykowski,
of course, is in his 50's, having reached a point in his job where he
doesn't do much, and he's just hoping he can make it to retirement
before someone figures that out. Michael Bolton complains bitterly
about his job, but really, he's content to stick it out; complaining
is more fun than figuring out something else to do with his life.
Then there's Lawrence (Diedrich Bader), Peter's construction-worker
next-door-neighbor, and one of the best movie characters ever.
Lawrence has a lower-status job than Peter, but he's generally a
happy guy, and Peter eventually comes to realize that that isn't such
a bad deal. The point of the movie isn't that everyone should quit
their day job and start working construction, but that job status and
money aren't the most important things in life.
If anyone reading this hasn't seen the
movie, then I implore you, make space in your life for “Office
Space.” It will make you laugh until your face hurts, and it might
just change your life!
5 stars out of 5
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