Great Use of Space

In rebuilding my top 100 movie list, Office Space was another movie I knew I didn't really need to watch again -- I knew that movie would make it on there somewhere. But I recently just felt the pull to watch it again anyway. You know, because I just really like it!

You might see it as a rather unlikely selection. Writer-director Mike Judge is sort of hit-and-miss with me. Mostly miss. I never really liked Beavis and Butthead. Extract was good, but not great. King of the Hill was a damn abomination. But anyone can capture lightning in the bottle once, and so it was with Office Space.

Much of the humor of Office Space comes from just how real it is, how only slightly it pushes beyond reality. The portrayal of the daily annoyances of working in a cubicle farm, or as a server in a resturant, are just spot on. The behaviors of people with grandiose delusions about the little power they wield. Even minor moments like the tyranny of static electricity, or living in an apartment with thin walls. This movie is hysterically, sometimes painfully authentic.

The rest of the humor comes from the pitch perfect performances of the brilliant cast. Ron Livingston does some his best work ever, surpassed only by Bands of Brothers -- an apple and oranges comparison that really should demonstrate just how good (and underused and underappreciated) he is. Jennifer Aniston scores good laughs in one of her last roles before she became locked down in bringing her A-list name to C-grade romantic comedies. Stephen Root so hilariously plays his character of Milton that despite mountains of other appearances all over the place, he's still best known for this. Gary Cole as boss Bill Lumbergh? He's a cultural icon now.

Even the less prominent characters land their own great moments. There's Diedrich Bader (of The Drey Carry Show), John C. McGinley (Scrubs), and Michael McShane (the original U.K. version of Whose Line Is It Anyway?), plus a bunch of other solid working actors bringing the funny in one of the tightest 90 minutes ever put on film.

My only complaint about the film -- and it would be a very minor one -- is that the plot is rather flimsy, secondary (at best) to the wonderful array of characters and jokes. But then again, the movie doesn't pretend otherwise. It even tells you what other movie it's stealing its most significant plot point from -- Superman III -- and then proceeds to mine still more comedy out of that.

I rate Office Space an A-. I can't imagine many people who wouldn't find at least something in it to like.