LogFAQs > #972386042

7. Office Space (1999)
Directed by Mike Judge
Score: 117

Plasma: 2
GavsEvans: 5
Suprak: 10
Vis: 11
Poke: 12
Mythiot: 13
Tangy: 14
John: 15
Forty: 17
Karo: 18

2. Plasma
Yeeeaahhh If we could get this masterpiece ranked near the top, that would be great. A

5. GavsEvans
This film was painful to watch. I could feel my soul being slowly crushed underfoot as it went on. Thank goodness that this was entirely intentional the film was that good at portraying a monotonous white-collar job, staffed by passive-aggressive supervisors who would rather avoid conflict than resolve problems or give straight answers. The corporate culture depicted here is efficient to the point of soullessness in all the areas it shouldnt be, and woefully inefficient in areas that would benefit from such efficiency.

The employees are victims of this system in different ways. Michael and Samir are laid off despite their work performance. Peter has totally checked out and does barely any work, but he gets a promotion anyway because he is able to play the game and tell upper management what they want to hear, which leads him to feel guilt when his friends suffer undeservedly and propose the embezzlement scheme. The loss of his job drives Tom to attempt suicide. Finally, theres Milton, the office doormat who is exploited and abused by everyone until he finally snaps. He may well be the most pitiful and pathetic character in all of fiction. While Im talking about characters, it would be remiss of me not to mention the Bill Lumberg, the petty micromanaging tyrant who is the bane of Peters life. Suffice to say, I think weve all come across a Lumberg at some point.

The rap soundtrack stands out in contrast to how mundane the rest of the setting is, as its not the sort of thing you would expect to hear on the soundtrack of an office-based comedy. In this case, its also used when characters are able to liven up their lives or rebel against the corporate drudgery, most memorably in the printer destruction scene.

This one may not have the most laugh-out-loud funny moments, but it does have some of the most effective satire on this list. Yeah, if we could just go ahead and give this one a respectable ranking, that would be great

11. Vis
The first half of this movie is GREAT. If youve ever worked an office job, you can recognize some hilarious circumstances that just felt so real they inflicted psychic damage on me. But even if youve never worked in an office, the general attitude of going to a job that you hate, dealing with stupid, trivial bullshit, is on full display. Its great. From minute one, with the fucking traffic that stalls when youre in a lane, then speeds up when youre able to merge, then stalls when you merge overits SO accurate. Everything in the soul-crushing office work section of the film is SO perfect, and its exaggerated in JUST the right way to make for a fantastic film. The fact that Peter learns to slack off and stop giving a shitand is REWARDED for thisthats perfect satire for the corporate world.

Where the movie loses me is the back half. The actual PLOT about stealing money from the company via a computer virus just isnt that fun, and you spend far too much of the film just watching the plan unravel in awful ways, and whatever good will that Peter built up in the first half just falls apart. Its disappointing, because theres something hilarious about watching this guy fail upward by learning to stop giving a shit about corporate norms, but then he has your standard third act downfall, and I just wish this wasnt that kind of movie. The first half is REALLY strong though, so Im fine with this high of a ranking.

13. Mythiot
A much funnier and incisive poke at 90s office culture than Dilbert was in any decade. After being called in to work on the weekend by his perfectly obnoxious boss and seeing a hypnotherapist die in front of him, an office worker fulfils our fantasies of sleeping in late and saying whatever we think, no matter how rude, at work without consequences. (The higher-ups even think his abrasive turn perfectly qualifies him for upper management. No kidding.) Then after his friends are laid off, he and his coworkers plot to embezzle from the company while he starts a new relationship with a waitress with her own frustrations with work and forced positivity. The biggest standout is Stephen Root as the anxious doormat Milton, who looks even more like a cartoon than the cartoon character that this film was based on.