A few weeks ago, the WALL STREET JOURNAL ran an article about OFFICE SPACE. If you haven't seen OS, a candy red Swingline stapler features prominently in the plot. Ironically, Swingline never made a red Swingline stapler; even though the film calls it by name a dozen times. This tiny movie, which grossed just under $11 million at the box office (according to the IMDb) has garnered such a following that, due to huge customer demand, Swingline now sells a red version of their most popular stapler (available through the company website).

Cult status officially attained... now.

Certainly, the film is deserving. No movie better satirizes the dot-com insanity of the late 1990s. Though the movie is less than five years old, watching it today already dredges up nostalgia, for everything from white-collared dress shirts to the Y2K virus (Remember when our biggest problem was a freaking computer virus?).

Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) is an unhappy corporate drone, updating bank software for Y2K at a generic computer company named Initech. He hates his job and his life so he puts up little struggle when his sort-of girlfriend suggests they go see a hypnotherapist. Just as he's hypnotized, the doctor keels over and promptly dies. The uncompleted procedure leaves Peter in an odd trance; he no longer cares what happens at his job and that naturally makes him Initech's newest up-and-comer.

If the plot isn't exactly the stuff of movie legend, the gags, many pulled off by the outstanding supporting cast, are. Peter's buddies (and eventual partners-in-crime) are Samir (Ajay Naidu) and Michael Bolton - except this Michael Bolton, played by David Herman, is a scrawny software specialist with a love of hardcore gangster rap. Naturally, everyone Michael meets gives him a hard time about his unfortunate moniker. Why not just change the name to Mike? In his words, "Why should I change? He's the one who sucks."

"Time, Love, And Tenderness" crooners aside, the unforgettable team that anchors the movie is co-worker-from-hell Milton (Steven Root) and boss-from-hell Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole, sleazier than a jazz trumpet solo). Milton, a maladjusted, pimple-faced weirdo, is the one with the red Swingline stapler, and Bill Lumbergh is the one who steals it from him and slowly strips away what dignity the poor man has left. Lumbergh is the bane of all the employees' existence, but he really shines in his battles with Milton. He also has the single funniest moment in the movie, in a truly disturbing sex dream one character suffers through.

The movie is based on a series of poorly animated cartoons by writer/director Mike Judge (If you get Comedy Central, you can catch them on reruns of SNL). SPACE's low-key success is perfectly fitting with writer/director Mike Judge's career - he's the creator behind the controversial-then-forgotten Beavis & Butthead and the eternally underrated King of the Hill. OS is slight and the budget is low, but Judge has a deft touch as a director, finding clever angles and camera moves to express the claustrophobia and frustration of cubicle life. He even turns up in an unbilled cameo as button-obsessed manager of a TGI Friday's-like restaurant named Chachki's. It's a shame he hasn't worked in live action since OFFICE SPACE, I'd love to see his take on the latest round of corporate greed scandals.

If the film does have a message, it is a warning against the evil we normally miss. Sometimes, the biggest evil isn't loud and aggressive, it's slimy and bland like Bill Lumbergh or faceless corporations like Initech (or its sister Initrode. No one knows what that company does, either). In a telling moment, Judge's evil manager instructs Jennifer Aniston's disgruntled waitress that she needs to express herself. How? By wearing buttons she is required to wear. OFFICE SPACE is a rallying cry for real expression. Turn off the Michael Bolton, turn on the Twisted Sister. We're not gonna take it anymore.