Office Space (R)

From the second the opening scene commences, anyone who has ever had a job that they hate (preferably in an office environment though any mindless job will do) will be able to completely relate with and thoroughly enjoy the subtle innuendos and corporation-jabbing humor of Mike Judge’s 1999 cult-classic masterpiece “Office Space.”

Set at the fictitious (but all too real) Initech Corporation, “Office Space” revolves around menial clerical worker Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) as he plods through his dull life, living in a drab apartment, dating a woman he doesn’t really care about, and getting stuck in a traffic jam en-route to a dead end job that he methodically despises.

Joining Peter in his disdain are his friends and co-workers; Michael Bolton (David Herman) a nerdy sort who wears neck ties with short sleeved shirts and rues the day the pop singer who shares his name became famous (they’re not related, it’s just a coincidence as he is forced to explain to everyone that asks).

Samir Nagheenanajar (Ajay Naidu) who is frustrated by the inability of anyone he meets to be able to pronounce his name.  Tom Smykowski (Richard Riehle) a career associate who envies the inventor of The Pet Rock (the guy made a million dollars, he explains), and Milton Waddams (Stephen Root) a timid and squirrely clerk who constantly mumbles at near indecipherable levels and obsesses over his Swingline Stapler.

All of the former are opposed by the always dull and robotic Initech Division Vice President Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole) and the overpriced and fairly useless consultants known as the Bobs (John C. McGinley and Paul Wilson).

After visiting a hypnotist, Peter adopts a completely carefree and aloof outlook on life – marching into a restaurant and finally asking out a waitress named Joanna that he has a crush on (Jennifer Aniston) and putting his job at Initech at the very bottom of his life’s important things, much to the chagrin of Lumbergh.

“Office Space” draws humor from the subtle yet pinpoint accurate tomfooleries that occur at the behest of management in the American corporate world.

Peter is chastised by three different managers for forgetting to use a meaningless cover sheet on a report and when he explains that it was just a one-time oversight that won’t happen again, he is completely ignored as his managers continue to lecture him on the importance of it.

Michael continues to do battle with a stubborn copy machine (anyone who has ever worked in an office has been the recipient of the cryptic and frustrating PC Load Letter error message).

Joanna fights with her boss at the restaurant (played by Mike Judge) over the amount of ‘Flare’ worn on her uniform (though she wears the minimum amount set by the restaurant of 15, it is encouraged that she wear more).

Her boss infers that paying customers would prefer the ‘flair’ to the quality of the food or the price.  Peter advises her at one point “You know the Nazi’s had pieces of flair that they made the Jews wear.”

Each actor is able to channel the type of character they are portraying.  Any everyman will be able to relate to Peter as he struggles with work and his love life.

Michael, Samir, Tom and Milton just scratch the surface of the Initech staff who could be substituted at any job in the world (as is the case with any job, you will constantly feel like you are the only normal person in the place).

The drone Lumbergh and the two consultants (outside individuals paid a lot of money to find out how the company can stop wasting money, a catch 22 if ever there were one) are the catalysts for the always antagonistic upper management who preach the company message though seem to do nothing but hinder its success.

Additional humor comes from Peter’s crass neighbor Lawrence (“The Drew Carey Show’s” Diedrich Bader) who, if given a million dollars, would simply “Do 2 chicks at the same time.”

Try watching office space and making of list of things you can relate too, in between laughing hysterically from start to finish.

– by Matt Christopher