Office Space 1999, Rated R 20th Century Fox

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Like most things, Hollywood seems a lot more interesting than it really is. The process surrounding the physical production of most films is precise and occasionally borders on tedious as the blocking, camera work and repetitious nature of dialogue often are overlooked by the casual moviegoer. (Stanley Kubrick was rumored to have done over 100 takes of Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise delivering dialogue in Eyes Wide Shut). And, for the most part, to those not involved in them, pitch meetings would qualify as being an especially monotonous usage of time. I, however, would have been thoroughly enjoyed to sit in on the pitch meeting for Office Space. To have seen the look on the studio executives face when writer/director Mike Judge outlined the movie he wanted to make, focusing on the driest, most painful everyday moments associated with working in corporate America would have provided far more entertainment than your given Spin City.

On the surface, the plot of Office Space might seem a little lackluster or slow, especially given its subject matter, that of office life in America, something most people have had their fill of during your given Monday through Friday work week. Ron Livingston (Swingers) stars as Peter Gibbons, a dissatisfied systems analyst for Initech, a global computer corporation. As Peter explains to his hypnotherapist, each day he lives becomes the new 'worst day of his life'. Every day he goes to work, and every day he is positively miserable. After suffering through a particularly grueling week, Peter decides he's just not going to go to work anymore. He doesn't quit and he doesn't resign; he just doesn't go. And, outside of a failed embezzlement scheme near the end of the film and Peter's relationship with a waitress played by Jennifer Aniston, that is the extent of the action in Office Space.

However, therein lies the beauty of this film. In Office Space, Judge has created one of the darkest, driest, most satirical and cynical looks at corporate America available today. We feel Peter's pain as he drives to work and is incessantly in the lane that doesn't move and we feel his anguish and torment while his boss, Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole) is lecturing to him about the proper way to file TPS reports. What Judge has effectively done in his live-action feature film debut is to capture the draining, almost senseless nature of life while working at a lower level position in a major corporation.

After living through one Monday morning with Peter, it becomes quite painfully obvious why he is dissatisfied with his life. And in a sick sense, it's damn funny because, simply, it's not happening to us.

Livingston is solid as Peter, bearing in mind that he has to displa.html>spla.html>spla.html>spla.html>splay roughly two emotions throughout the course of the movie--one of which he is adequately displaying in the still to the left--but it is Cole's performance as Lumbergh that steals the show.

As Lumbergh, the boss from hell, Cole is nearly perfect. Each line of dialogue he speaks is punctuated with a beginning "Yeah..." drawled just long enough to thoroughly annoy you even before the topic of conversation has even begun.

Office Space is a rather unusual film, made enjoyable by the sheer number of characters and conversations that you can relate to your own life. This is a sick society we live in, and Mike Judge knows it.