The Wasteland Reviewer

The Wasteland Gems: Office Space (1999)

How do you choose what to watch on all those streaming services you have access to? There are so many options that it is just overwhelming. These services constantly release new content and overshadow all the great films from the past that are already there and ready to watch. Now there is The Wasteland Gems! Here is a great film on streaming right now that you should check out this weekend:

Office Space (1999)

Have you ever worked in an office? There are plenty of different types of experiences you can have but there is that one stereotypical experience we see in the media. Soul crushing. Lifeless. Monochrome. This is a space where all joy and creativity go to die. The gray. The endless cubicles. The monotonous work that is just endlessly boring and unfulfilling. Any situation like this would certainly drive someone to have an emotional crisis. That is the story and journey that creator Mike Judge seeks to tell with his classic comedy, Office Space.

How does Judge capture this horrible working situation on screen? The production design for the company Initech is pitch perfect. The whole entire workspace is a series of gray scales. There is no life in this place, and it really is just a series of cubicles that make up a sea of monotony and familiarity. Everyone’s outfits are more of the same bland recurring colors and styles. But it is not just the physical space that makes Initech so soulless. You have Lumbergh. Condescending. Passive aggressive. Heartless. He is a boss from Hell. Then you have a whole office full of sad sacks and aggressively fake people. Their soulless fake smiles or endless negativity makes this horrific environment. Tedium and apathy run amuck. Judge fully understands the world of 90s corporate life.

But where does Judge find the comedy in this soul crushing environment? The absurd characters go a long way. The one-two punch of Lumbergh and Milton really makes this whole film so memorable. The aggressively corporate look of this terrible boss is hilarious to behold with the slick hair, suspenders, and the whole ensemble. The mug-in-hand approach to all his interactions are just so ridiculous and paired with his monotone voice just makes for the most uncomfortably cringy moments that you cannot help but laugh at. Milton is…something. His quirks and unique look make him stand out. But his muffled voice and strange pitch makes every single line he says funny. There is the absurdity of the corporate work that you cannot help but laugh at. There is a character whose whole job it is to connect the phone workers to other staff…when the phone workers could just learn who to reach out to in the first place. Some of the funniest moments of the film happen outside of the Initech office though. Our protagonist Peter has a neighbor who is a construction worker who is a “salt-of-the-Earth” type of person. His mullet and horseshoe moustache are characters all their own. His world perspective and one-liners are downright hilarious. There is another company that gets put under the microscope as well with a Friday’s style restaurant. The whole work environment is just absurd and most of the workers are just turned up to 11. But the funniest moment in the whole film is Peter and his coworkers Michael and Samir take the copy machine out to a field and destroy it to the tune of some rap music. The vibes work all the way down.

Did Judge find the right actors to bring this absurd world to life? Gary Cole captures that monotone passive-aggressiveness of Lumbergh so well. The little acting choices he makes go a long way. Stephen Root is the perfect character actor to bring such a weird like Milton to life. Every single choice from his body language to his voice to his tempo is precise. Ron Livingston has the tough job of being the straight man to this whole absurd situation and he brings the right mix of apathy, rising anxiety, and frustration. Diedrich Bader is a wholly under-appreciated character actor and his work as the blue-collar Lawrence is just perfect. He is relatable, funny, and absurd, all at the same time. There is a pair of work efficiency auditors, “The Bobs”, and John C. McGinley delivers such an uncomfortable and fun character with plenty of hilarious mannerisms and little performance choices.

Is Office Space the type of cult classic that you should rush out to watch? 100%. The hilarity and absurdity of this lifeless corporate world is relatable to so many and filled with comedic potential. The 1999 setting might be a little harder for young audiences to fully grasp (work culture and procedures have changed so much since then) but hopefully they can find the alien nature of it fun. The idea of being hypnotized into relaxation and confidence seems like a magical thought. The humor is there. The cast is excellent. This is a classic for a reason.

Office Space is streaming on Hulu