Office Space: As Fulfilling As a Middle Finger to Management

This film represents the second of four comedies topping my Netflix queue, just in case you were keeping track.

Occasionally, I draw looks from suspicious people who can't believe, in light of my love of film, that I've failed to view certain cornerstones, certain celebrated films that "everyone" has allegedly watched at some point or another. One film of this type is Office Space, which I've rather managed to accidentally avoid since its release. Now, to be fair, it's a cult classic, so it's not as if it has widespread, universal appeal, but given that I hail from the generation that will venerate the under-appreciated Mike Judge (see also: Beavis and Butt-head, King of the Hill) one day, it shocks many to know that I haven't taken the plunge with Office Space. I'm not sure why; it's not like the film has been eminently quoted for the last decade, and other workplace satires have come and gone - or stayed successfully, like TV's The Office. Still, the power of Netflix allows me to catch up on some of these films that people think I should see, so I punched in at the time clock amidst the cubicle forests and novelty restaurants of Office Space.

In the film, Peter (Ron Livingston) is a programmer at fictional company Initech, who is stressed out by the everyday doldrums of his job re-programming software in advance of the Y2K onslaught and by the top-heavy incompetence of his workplace management. Sharing in his joy are his friends and co-workers, Samir Nagheennanajar (Ajay Naidu), who is frustrated by the fact that no one can pronounce his name, and Michael Bolton (David Herman), who loves gangsta' rap all the while trying to live down the unfortunate association with his name. Also present at Initech is a squirrelly employee named Milton Waddams (Stephen Root), who covets his red Swingline stapler and mutters frequently about his displeasure with continually being moved from cubicle to cubicle (as it turns out, he was laid off years ago but was never told, and still collects a paycheck), and some of his mutters seem to contain unintelligible though violent threats against the purveyors of his misfortune. The company is facing downsizing by a pair of consultants known as "The Bobs" (Paul Wilson, John C. McGinley), and Peter's annoying supervisor Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole) seems to be smelling like roses. Not to mention the fact that Peter is having ongoing problems with his long-term girlfriend. When he goes to seek help in reducing stress from a therapist and hypnotist, during the actual hypnosis session, the therapist suffers from a heart attack and dies, failing to "wake" Peter up from his hypnotized state. As a result, relaxed and disaffected, Peter stops returning calls to his girlfriend (who confesses to cheating on him) and decides he is going to do what he has always wanted to do: nothing, which also includes ceasing and desisting his consistent appearances at work. His new approach seems to impress The Bobs, thanks to his direct explanations for his behavior; to flummox his friends; to stymie his boss, as his stock falls while Peter's rises; and to spur Peter's confidence in asking a local waitress named Joanna (Jennifer Aniston) out on a date, who shares interests with Peter like the television show Kung Fu and a general hatred of management at her respective workplace, Chotchkie's (a take on TGI Friday's). When Peter manages to earn a promotion while Samir and Michael suffer from cutbacks, the three hatch a scheme to turn the screw in the cork of late twentieth century American corporate culture, the results of which are not so neatly executed.

Office Space contains some classically hilarious nuggets that will probably ring as timeless as the Post-it note (see also: the teaser art for the film). Whether it's the spectacular demolition of the stolen office printer - and didn't we all want to hurl these things out windows at the sight of the ever frustrating "PC Load Letter" - to the condescending "Bobs" attempting to rationalize their downsizing efforts, to Peter's no-holds-barred admission that he has no intention of falling in line, to Joanna's satisfying resignation from Chotchkie's, there is much to like and to laugh at with respect to this film. Judge's gift for poking fun at the here and now served him well with this effort, even if the setting and events of the film will forever place it in a ready-made time capsule, whether from the Y2K prevention angle to the less-than-profitable dot.com company to Aniston's mid-Friends Rachel hair. The barbs are just pointed enough to prick, and the situations in the film definitely inspire chuckles. especially given the entirely laughably named Michael Bolton character or the bumbling Milton Waddams.

Yet, Office Space is not as hilarious as originally advertised by its cult following. The film is certainly entertaining and the satire strong, but the story and its underlying comedy suffer from a scattered silliness that rounds out some of the satirical edge. When the film veers from Peter, shirking his work responsibilities with hypnotized reckless abandon, to the convoluted scheme to steal pennies from the company via the very software the three stooges of Peter, Michael, and Samir were hired to program and to debug, the film actually stops being funny and grows quite tedious. It's as if Judge didn't really know how to sustain the workplace rebellion of Peter for the full feature time frame of an hour and a half, so he crowbarred some random plot device into the proceedings to add questionable dramatic tension to Peter and Joanna's budding relationship and to give the three chuckle-head main characters something to do. While some funny dialog may have emerged from this comedic situation, the entire addition of this element to the story really distracted from what worked in the film to begin with.

On the other hand, when the film worked, it worked. Stephen Root's eccentric performance as Milton may be the highlight. The character is too creepy to be sympathetic, but the quirky, muttering affectations of this individual - the poster child for "it's always the quiet ones" - will definitely be one of the legacies of his amply varied and interesting career.

Also, Ron Livingston offered an equally likable performance as Peter, the everyman of the tale, the character any self-respecting office employee longs to be, however consciously or subconsciously. His sidekicks were not as reliably believable or funny, but together, they made for an interesting insurrection against corporate insanity. Further, Diedrich Bader appeared as Peter's neighbor, Lawrence, who benefited from the paper-thin walls separating their apartments; his random words of worldly wisdom despite his long history in local construction turned out to be chuckle-worthy, even when he could have just been another annoying "weird guy" type character.

The only other interesting quirk of this film to note would be the almost-exclusively hip hop/gangsta' rap soundtrack underlying the piece. It is both exceptionally amusing - and pleasantly nostalgic - that such a soundtrack would be the background for a film with almost no non-white characters, apart from Samir and Steve (Orlando Jones), the door-to-door magazine salesman who is selling more than subscriptions. If it weren't for the film's haphazard comedic approach, which unraveled the tightness of the satire toward the end, the soundtrack coupled with the premise of the film would have made it one of the funniest, most under-appreciated movie comedies of all time.

In the end, though, like the title of this review suggests, Office Space is about as fulfilling as throwing up a middle finger to management. Sure, you get your jollies from finally sticking it to "the man" with your obscene finger gestures, but the satisfaction lasts only as long as it takes you to walk your fired butt out the door, before reality settles in, and you realize it was not as fun or as funny as unemployed you originally thought. Also, despite corporate espionage and unmitigated admissions of lackluster work performance, it never works out so neatly as it does in the film (well, except for Milton's ideas, on occasion). Because the film was funny but ultimately really not that funny due to the absurd change in direction in the back third of the film that killed some of the comedic buzz, I find myself landing on a rating of 7.5, between shaky but entertaining and minor flaws but very good. Generally, the film kept me engaged and left me laughing but also descended into relative stupidity before finally redeeming itself at the end. As to the test, I'm not sure it passes. I might want to watch it again because it wasn't a waste of 90 minutes, but I'm not sure that I would randomly pull it from my collection for casual viewing. Perhaps I would if I found it on sale for five bucks. In any event, Office Space is funny and worth the watch, if you haven't seen it yet. It's simply best not to be drawn into the hype or the wildly fluorescent-colored and shiny flair prior to doing so.