May 2000

Office Space
Reviewed by Doug Schneider
DVD Format

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Picture Quality:
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Starring Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston, David Herman, Ajay Naidu

Directed by Mike Judge

Theatrical Release: 1999
DVD Release: 1999
Dolby Digital 5.1
Widescreen

It’s hard to imagine that humans were put on this earth for the sole purpose of sitting in metal and glass buildings under florescent lights for the majority of our daylight hours. It’s sad, but true, and unfortunately it gets worse. It’s a world where the walls are six feet tall and covered with material and where there are no real doors, just entranceways. You can hear your neighbor’s every word and every bodily function. Yes, it’s cubicle life, the life of many modern-day workers around the world. Office Space exposes office workers in the way Clerks exposed the 7-11 crowd. Both films are sharp, biting, and often downright hilarious.

Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) is a computer programmer employed by a company called Initech. He’s working on Y2K bugs for banking-related software, but he’s bored. He also thinks his girlfriend is cheating on him, and he has to endure life in a suburban townhouse with paper-thin walls. Worst of all, he has to sit in a cubicle almost every day of the week. He deliberately arrives at work fifteen minutes late, sneaks in the back door to avoid his boss, and stares vacuously at his desk pretending to work. By his own admission, he estimates that in a day he does about fifteen minutes of work. He also dreams of a girl named Joanna (Jennifer Aniston). Joanna is a waitress at a local restaurant called Chotchkies, but he’s too bored (and scared) to ask her out. However, all that changes when he visits a hyno-therapist on the persistent advice of his girlfriend. Once under the spell, Peter overcomes all his fears. He refuses to go to work and instead simply stays home to do what he’s always dreamed of doing -- absolutely nothing. This is a comedy, but in some ways I’m sure some could classify it as modern-day horror.

Office Space was written and directed by Mike Judge (creator of Beavis and Butt-Head and King of the Hill). It sprinkles its sharp wit over its very ordinary characters working under insane circumstances. Having worked under nearly identical circumstances for many years of my own life, I can attest to the fact that much of what’s shown here is very accurate. I can’t imagine that Judge wasn’t himself an office worker. He has an uncanny knowledge of the ludicrous nature of bureaucracies. The methods of escape, the job insecurity, the way people dress, are all too real. Perhaps he just did very good research. I can remember how many times I went for coffee, or just strolled the halls, in order to escape the boredom of my own desk.

This film is low budget by Hollywood standards. It has a sparse and clean, but sometimes dull look. However, this style actually works to its favor -- after all, isn’t daily office work the same way? Picture and sound quality are only good, but in a film like this that can hardly be held against it. We’re not expecting Matrix-like production values. What I would like to have seen, though, is some good DVD extras. Real-life interviews with office workers perhaps? Heaven knows that truth is stranger than fiction and surely there are office workers who could tell hilarious and sordid stories that could even put what’s in this film to shame. Unfortunately, the DVD only offers the theatrical trailer and a few scant blurbs on some of the cast.

It’s a bare-bones DVD of a low-budget movie, but in the end I can say that I absolutely loved it. In fact, I found myself laughing for a couple days afterward. Highly recommended for the world of cubicle workers. 

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