Office Space (1998)

Review by Bret Walker

Mike Judge comes through with another comedic masterpiece straight on the heels of Beavis and Butthead Do America. This time it's a live-action folly, a look at corporate America as seen through the eyes of the office worker.

Judge covers all kinds of every-day working life in this film. He begins with the morning commute, and the invariable law of physics which states that when you switch lanes, that lane comes to a complete stop. The characters in this film face the angst of dealing with the frequently-malfunctioning fax machine, living in cubicle city, trying desperately to hang on to the office supplies that you treasure most.

The film begins with Peter Gibbons facing the common malaise that most office workers face: the boss wants him to work for the weekend. His girlfriend urges him to see a hypnotist who helped her to quit smoking, and so he goes. In the middle of the hypnotism (where Peter is in a beautiful place and nothing bothers him), the hypnotist has a heart attack and no one snaps Peter out of the trance. He goes home and sleeps for two days and begins to take a very laxidasical outlook on life.

When he gets promoted for his laziness and two of his friends get laid off, he decides to take action. One of this programmer friends writes a "virus" that takes the tiny fraction remainders of many bank transactions and dumps them into another account. Things go terribly wrong and in the end they must come up with a way out or face sure and swift prosectution.

Office Space is another incarnation of 9 to 5, but much edgier and much funnier. The scene where Peter takes his friends into a field to destroy the office fax machine is particularly funny. This film abounds with humor that is funny especially to those who live the life of the office drone (which is why I found a particular kinship with this film and its characters). Anyone who works in an office should definitely put this film on their must-see list, and anyone else should see it so that they can better empathize with the plight of their friends who work in offices.

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Trivia:

Office Space started as an animated short featuring Milton Waddams as the main character. The short was later picked up by Saturday Night Live for a short period of time and listed as "Milton" when shown during the Saturday night variety show.

OK, how's this for a double link? Jennifer Aniston played Jeanie Bueller on the ill-fated TV series Ferris Bueller (1990). Now, we all know that Jennifer Grey played Jeanie in the hit movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off. And of course, Jennifer Grey played Rachel Greene's (Jennifer Aniston) maid of honor, Mindy, on one episode of Friends.

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