Mike Judge creates office hell
By Lauren Howiy
lor the Emerald
"Office Space” magnifies
every college student's worst
fears about life after college. It
should have every graduate this
spring running from the job
market in order to avoid the
frustrating monotony of a career
in a cubicle.
Mike Judge, creator of televi
sion’s “Beavis and Butthead”
and “King of the Hill,” inge
niously directs the movie, using
his own work experience as ma
terial.
The film starts out following
computer programmer Peter
Gibbons (Ron Livingston of
"Swingers”) through his hum
drum morning routine. He gets
stuck in traffic; shocked by the
door handle at INITECH, where
he works; hounded for making
a simple mistake; and reminded
constantly about getting the
memo that would have prevent
ed the mistake. He hates his job.
The last straw comes when
Peter’s evil boss (Gary Cole of
“The Brady Bunch Movie”) asks
him to come in not only on Sat
urday but on Sunday, too. Peter
goes to an occupational hyp
notherapist and has a break
through as the therapist dies of a
heart attack while hypnotizing
reusr m a re
laxation
exercise.
The next
morning,
Peter
4
Office Space
DIRECTED BY: Mike Judge
STARRING:
Ron Livingston, Gary Cole,
Jennifer Aniston
RATING:
★★★★*
sleeps in and ultimately plays
hooky the entire weekend. He is
rested, relaxed and de-stressed.
Meanwhile, his boss has
brought in efficiency experts to
fire anyone not essential to
INITECH's success. One of the
funniest sequences in the film is
when Peter brings his laid-back
new lifestyle to the office. His
small acts of rebellion are put to
the song "Damn it Feels Good to
be a Gangster” by the Geto Boys.
The soundtrack is one of the
running gags throughout the
movie. It is hilarious to see com
puter programmers taking on
the tough persona of a street
gang as they destroy the always
troublesome copy machine with
a baseball bat.
As Peter starts to feel better
about his life, he finds the
courage to ask out waitress Joan
na (Jennifer Aniston), whose job
is equally confining. Aniston,
despite her beauty, does a good
job of playing the ordinary girl
next door. And Liv
uigoiuu 10 liUiivim,
ing as the conven
tional suffering
office worker. His
nonexpressive face makes Pe
ter’s internal transformation all
the more comical.
Peter’s office friends at
IN1TECH, Samir (Ajay Naidu)
and Michael Bolton (another
running gag, personified by
David Herman), also provide
moments of levity, whether it’s
their frustration with their own
names or with the copy machine.
“Office Space" is based on
Judge’s animated shorts by the
same title. The shorts involve a
nebbish, peculiar character
named Milton, who is also a
character in the film (Stephen
Root of “News Radio’s”). Milton
is key to the movie’s plot, and
Root does a good job of making
Milton a mumbling, sympathet
ic corporate peon but at the
same time not exactly likable.
Cinematographer Tim
Suhrstedt creates a claustropho
bic atmosphere at INITECH
through the use of tight close
ups and the internal framing of
characters in small spaces.
Judge does a great job of cap
turing the anxieties and frustra
tions that many people in the
workforce can relate to, and it is
this common pool of office stress
that Judge draws on to create the
film’s humor. “Office Space” is
a fun romp through the corpo
rate world for those who can
sympathize and a hilarious cari
cature oi otnce
stress for those
who can em
pathize.
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