Office Space: Mike Judge

I had already seen Mike Judge's Office Space, a cult comedy about 90s software programmer Peter Gibbons who reaches the slacker equivalent of nirvana after a botched attempt at "occupational hypnotherapy," before. Well, that's not entirely true. I had seen parts of the film before on Comedy Central where it was heavily edited. It was during these viewings that I learned that few things are as annoying as gangsta rap songs edited for basic cable. But watching the complete, unedited version only confirmed what I have known to be true for quite some time now: Office Space is a comedic masterpiece. If you've never spent time working a dead-end job in an office, then you will never truly understand how spot-on Office Space captures the emotions and feelings that accompany such an environment (for the record, one of my many past part-time jobs was working as a telemarketer for the fundraising department of my undergraduate college). All of the pointless minutiae, the broken office supplies, the unbearably cheerful co-workers, the incompetent bosses...all of it is true. I've read that the producers wanted Judge to reshoot the film to make it more visually vibrant. Thankfully, he had the good sense to keep the visual look of the film dull, bleak, boring, and soul-deadening. Anything more overstated would have made Office Space a lie. And the film's greatest strength is in its ability to tell the truth.

9/10