Review: Office Space

Disgruntled office worker Ron Livingston (tired of the daily grind and constant clock-watching) is transformed by the death of an occupational hypnotherapist (Michael McShane) and emerges a new, carefree man. No longer will he take his passive-aggressive, condescending middle-management boss Gary Cole’s crap, and hey, if he doesn’t feel like coming in to work today, gosh darn it, he won’t. Hell, he even works up the courage to ask out pretty equally disgruntled waitress Jennifer Aniston. And then he comes up with an idea along with his equally disgruntled computer-wiz co-workers Ajay Naidu and David Herman (who, as a man named Michael Bolton, wants that ‘no talent ass clown’ to change his name). They use a complicated software program to rip the company off and make themselves rich (albeit incrementally). But here’s the gag: it’s an idea Herman gets from “Superman III”! Diedrich Bader is Livingston’s lazy, breast-obsessed redneck neighbour, John C. McGinley is an anal management consultant (heh, heh. You know what I meant, you dirty pervs), Richard Riehle is a fellow disgruntled employee who suffers a terrible fate but gets a big payout, and Stephen Root is meek, nerdy Milton, whose presence at work is somewhat neglected, and who is fiercely protective of his stapler and especially his cubicle.

Well-observed, amusing 1999 black comedy from writer-director Mike Judge (TV’s “Beavis and Butthead” and “King of the Hill”), in part an extension of his “Milton” cartoon that appeared on “Saturday Night Live”. This is the kind of knowing film that everyone in the audience will find something they identify with. Whether it’s the copier that seems to have a grudge against you, that annoyingly chipper co-worker you’d like to set on fire, the constant reminders from a series of equally condescending superiors about mundane tasks you forgot to carry out just this one time, the constant fear of losing your job due to downsizing, or my personal favourite, the attempt to remain unnoticed by your boss when they come around to ask someone (i.e. you) to work on weekends!

Livingston is perfectly deadpan in the lead, Naidu and Herman are likeable offsiders, and Root’s an hilarious oddball, and the small roles for McGinley, Orlando Jones (as a door-to-door salesman and professed former crack addict), and Bader (still best known as likeable moron Oswald from “The Drew Carey Show”) are also very funny, but it’s the comic genius of Cole that really impresses. His condescending, positively creepy boss (and we all know someone like this soulless turd, so it might just give several of you nightmares) might just be Satan himself and is one of the more memorable comic creations in recent years. Hell, even the usually mannered Aniston (whose “Friends”-derived comedic quirks and facial/vocal mannerisms are kept to a minimum, thankfully) is reined in enough to work quite well in her somewhat superfluous role. Her best moments are in scenes with her equally condescending, annoying boss, played to lisping perfection by Judge himself. Scripted by the director, who has clearly made the cinematic equivalent of the battle cry of the disgruntled office worker. If you don’t cheer as the guys bust open various office technology- copiers, computers etc. - set to profane gangsta rap, then you’re not one of the brethren, I’m afraid.

Rating: B