Office Space

DIRECTOR/SCREENWRITER
Mike Judge

PRODUCERS
Daniel Rappaport
Michael Rotenberg

CINEMATOGRAPHER
Tim Suhrstedt

MUSIC
John Frizzell

EDITOR
David Rennie

CAST

Ron Livingston (Peter Gibbons)
Jennifer Aniston (Joanna)
Ajay Naidu (Samir Nayeenanajar)
David Herman (Michael Bolton)
Gary Cole (Bill Lumbergh)
Stephen Root (Milton Waddams)
Richard Riehle (Tom Smykowski)
Alexandra Wentworth (Anne)
Joe Bays (Dom Portwood)
John C. McGinley (Bob Slydell)
Paul Willson (Bob Porter)
Diedrich Bader (Lawrence)
Orlando Jones (Steve)
Mike Judge (Chotchkie's Manager)

MPAA rating: R
Running time: 89m
U.S. release: February 19, 1999
Video availability: VHS - DVD
Official website

Other Mike Judge films
reviewed on this website:

- Beavis & Butt-Head Do America

 Mike Judge has sort of snuck in the back door and become America's premier satirist. Since the humble beginnings of "Frog Baseball," in which a prototypical Beavis and Butt-Head set the stage for the later exploits of the South Park gang, Judge has taken on MTV (on B&B's show), road movies (in Beavis and Butt-Head Do America), Texan stereotypes (in King of the Hill), and now, in Office Space, the fertile soil of the cubicle world. Is Judge's timing shrewd or bad? Dilbert, both in the funnies and now on TV, has covered much of the same ground, as has The Drew Carey Show, which has long been considered a kind of unofficial live-action Dilbert.

So what's left for Judge to puncture? A lot, as it happens. Like the best satire, Office Space is only marginally about its surface subject. The outrages here are exaggerated, but just slightly. Who hasn't worked for a boss like Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole -- finally, Satan as Mike Brady), a Valium-smooth weasel who squashes the dignity of his underlings without ever seeming unreasonable? Or a boss who insists that you display the proper company spirit by wearing clownish buttons that weigh you down like chain mail? You don't have to do time in a cubicle to run across gung-ho goblins like these; they're everywhere. Where do they come from? Are they born that way, or does moral imbecility come with a degree in management?

For Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston), the problem isn't just Bill Lumbergh. It's everything about his job -- the pointless meetings, the senseless policies, the meaningless tasks. Peter is supposed to be working on Y2K-compatible software, an honorable goal, but the corporate mentality could drain the pride out of giving candy to orphans. Peter thinks he's sick of his life, but he's really just sick of the office (which has taken over his life). His reawakening comes, ironically, when he's in deep sleep: a botched hypnotherapy session leaves him fearless and impulsive -- he becomes the Bulworth of the cubicles, and his sudden yeah-whatever attitude has the opposite effect of pushing him further up the ranks. (It's a bit like what happened to George Costanza when he decided to do everything "opposite.")

Together with his fellow cubicle-prisoners Samir (Ajay Naidu) and Michael Bolton (David Herman) -- "It's just a coincidence," Michael has muttered about six million times since the mid-'80s -- Peter devises a hacking scam to steal some of the company's money. Without pushing it too much, Judge suggests that when intelligent people spend too much time in the corporate pool (which esteems money above all else), they may adopt the ethics of sharks. Looking around the office, you realize that everyone except the managers is there for the money (the managers are in it for the power). Job security -- being able to pay the bills -- has become not a basic obligation but the sole meaning of life.

All of which sounds a little too hefty for a Mike Judge comedy, so let it be said that Office Space, while planting all these thoughts in your head, is also consistently funny. Jennifer Aniston basically functions as the movie's "girl" -- Peter's love interest -- but her character's waitressing job allows for a few terrific digs at public-service jobs, in which the employer's policies have precious little to do with the customer's essential needs. Ron Livingston is a little bland by design -- he's the movie's Hank Hill, the straight man for such off-the-wall characters as the cringing Milton (Stephen Root, as hilariously servile here as he is hilariously domineering on TV's NewsRadio) or the movie's Boomhauer stand-in, Lawrence (Diedrich Bader), a construction worker who seems a whole lot happier than his next-door neighbor Peter. For Peter, Lawrence represents a different way of life and work, and that's the difference between this movie and Dilbert or Drew Carey: Those characters are trapped in their positions, but Judge points to a way out -- or at least a more graceful way of reconciling one's job and one's life. Not bad for a guy who made his rep by splattering frogs.