Product: Office Space (1999)
Rating: 5.0
Shines where others fail
Office Space succeeds where Amercian Beauty and Fight Club fail. It captures the moribound existence of late '90's office life in the suburbs without the overdrawn artsy pretentiousness of American Beauty and without the crazed plot twist of Fight Club. American Beauty tried to treat Kevin Spacey's situations as comical and it came across as awkward. Not here. Director Mike Judge, of Beavis and Butthead fame, shows why he is the Hunter S. Thompson/Tom Wolfe of the '90's. Throught his work, especially in Office Space, Judge reveals the ugly truth behind society's facade of economic good times in an irreverant manner. Office Space should soon be a cult favorite thanks to its classic scenes that warrant repeated viewing. The slow motion death-by-baseball bat-beating of a fax machine is both hilarious and profound. Some deride the movie for its ending, but the film's conclusion should not seem far-fetched to anyone who has read Voltaire's Candide. So if you're looking for a movie that captures what it means to be a young working adult without pompousness or art-house flavour, Office Space is perfect.