OFFICE KILLER

* ^{out of} ****

Something is rotten in these frames by Sherman

Director Cindy Sherman's place in the pomo art pantheon is a sure thing. Her formula involves elaborate dress up and staging to produce an untitled film still perhaps evoking some pop memory.

With OFFICE KILLER, Sherman makes the move to continuous film. The result is alarmingly bereft of novelty or creativity; defenders of Sherman would find little of substance here. During the move, a semi-interesting thread holding the result together seems to have been forgotten. Sherman's stills showed inklings of promising camp, but OFFICE KILLER, clearly aspiring for high camp, fails miserably at being even competent camp. Fresh insight into the perils of corporate business - downsizing, staff hierarchy, technology - is absent. Heck, how would Sherman, celebrated artist, know this? Has she even stepped into a cubicle? Her foray into new territory proves uninteresting and graceless.

The roll of the film provides even more disappointments. Surprisingly, OFFICE KILLER's producers were also responsible for SWOON and POISON, and although Todd Haynes (SAFE) is credited with additional dialogue, there is nary a trace of care nor wit here. Besides disappointment and the urge to request your hard-earned entertainment dollars back, the only possible reaction OFFICE KILLER should evoke is unearned recoil from those unfamiliar with amateurish gore.

Carol Kane endures bad hair and wardrobe to play Dorine, the long-time lackey whose recent reassignment to part-time work at home turns her into a serial killer with a taste for dioramas involving her victims. Jeannie Tripplehorn also endures bad hair and wardrobe but unlike Kane is disadvantaged by having to play it straight. Molly Ringwald comes out all the wiser; her apparent decision not to put up much of an acting effort is a smart decision in a film where everyone's efforts are wasted. F

OFFICE KILLER

Directed by Cindy Sherman.

Written by Tom Kalin and Denise MacAdam.

U.S.A. 1997

Review completed September 15, 1997.