Office Space

Released 1999
Stars Jennifer Aniston, Ron Livingston, Gary Cole, Stephen Root, David Herman, John C. McGinley, Ajay Naidu, Diedrich Bader, Paul Willson
Directed by Mike Judge

Mike Judge's "Office Space" is a comic cry of rage against the nightmare of modern office life. It has many of the same complaints as "Dilbert" and the movie "Clockwatchers" and, for that matter, the works of Kafka and the Book of Job. It is about work that crushes the spirit. Office cubicles are cells, supervisors are the wardens, and modern management theory is skewed to employ as many managers and as few workers as possible.

Mike Judge, who gained fame through MTV's "Beavis and Butt-Head," and made the droll animated film "Beavis and Butt-Head Do America" (1996), has taken his "SNL" Milton cartoons as an inspiration for this live-action comedy, which uses Orwellian satirical techniques to fight the cubicle police: No individual detail of office routine is too absurd to be believed, but together they add up to stark, staring insanity

The movie's turning point comes when Peter seeks help from an "occupational hypnotherapist." He's put in a trance with long-lasting results; he cuts work, goes fishing, guts fish at his desk and tells efficiency experts he actually works only 15 minutes a week. The experts like his attitude and suggest he be promoted. Meanwhile, the Milton problem is ticking like a time bomb, especially after Milton's cubicle is relocated to a basement storage area.

Summary by Roger Ebert