Comedy is job one
It tanked at the box office but boomed in video stores. Now, a new, repackaged 'Office Space' DVD takes its place as a bona fide comedy cult classic

October 30, 2005


'Office Space" opened in theaters in February 1999 and pulled in roughly $4.2 million in its first weekend. By May of that year, its total theatrical gross had crawled to about $10.8 million. For perspective's sake, consider that two weekends ago, "The Fog" opened - opened, do you hear - with $14.2 million.

Of course, any movie tempts lackluster receipts when it opens in the dead of winter with no big-name stars except Jennifer Aniston - regarded back then as a small-screen fixture, with no Brad Pitt in her immediate vicinity.

But I, at least, expected better initial results. When reviewing "Office Space" for this newspaper, I figured that there were so many people disgusted with their jobs (or, at least, who weren't too far removed from jobs they hated) that a big, quick, box-office score was inevitable.

I was wrong. But in the long term, I wasn't.

As of February this year, 3.5 million of the movie's first DVD issue - in August 1999 - had been sold, according to figures from Fox Home Entertainment. But a movie's cult status is a bit harder to quantify. Such things are roughly determined from anecdotes, word of mouth and the circulation of catchphrases and dialogue from the movie.

And from such evidence, one can say that "Office Space" has become a bona fide cult film. White-collar workers from sea to shining sea have found communion with director Mike Judge's droll, deadpan and frighteningly on-target farce about Hating Your Job and Rising Above It.

Quotes galore

"Oh, that movie," one boss from another company told me last week. "I haven't seen it yet, but one of my guys keeps quoting it to me."

I should have warned him that with Fox's release this week of "Office Space" on a "Special Edition With Flair DVD," his guy may find renewed energy to watch it over again and memorize even more quotes.

And if you're not into mouthing movie quotes (and there are only a few that we can safely repeat in a family newspaper), you can use Judge's movie, as others have, to reinforce your private dream of insubordination similar to that carried out in the film by Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston).

For the uninitiated, Peter works at a dreary desk job for something called the Initech Corporation, one of those bland, sprawling, suburban-based complexes that trap their employees in cubicles and make them push buttons and move paper for no good reason beyond a steady paycheck. His friends Samir (Ajay Naidu) and Michael (David Herman) are at perennial war with the office fax machine, while Milton (Stephen Root), though fired months ago, still has a desk, still has a salary and still has his red stapler.

All of them are, to varying degrees, terrorized by their glib, slick boss, Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole), the kind of insidious sharpie who sidles up to every drone and purrs, "Whaat's happening?" This comes before he's about to needle them about some minor flub or compel them to work weekends. ("Uh, eeyeaaah ...I'm gonna have to go ahead and ... uh ... ask you to ... ah ... come in tomorrow. ... That would be great.") Whether he wants it or not, Cole may well achieve a dubious immortality for this role.

Look into my eyes

Anyway, the Friday before he's due in for that extra office day, Peter submits to hypnosis designed to make him less uptight about everything. The hypnotist has a fatal coronary before he can rouse Peter from his trance. A blissed-out Peter thus goes Bartelby-the-Scrivener on Initech, blowing off work, dressing down, shaking off an annoying girlfriend for a date with a waitress (Aniston) at a theme restaurant where she's browbeaten by a supercilious boss (Judge) for not wearing enough "flair" (i.e. decorative buttons) on her uniform.

A pair of efficiency experts (aka layoff specialists) named Bob don't see Peter's laid-back demeanor as slacking. They see him as an undermotivated "straight shooter" with "upper management written all over him." "Oooh," says Lumbergh, "I'm gonna have to go ahead and ... ah ... disagree?" Nonetheless, Peter is promoted, while Amir, Michael and others are laid off.

Funny and recognizable

This is only one of the movie's many subplots and riffs. (Hint: Don't make the company's mistake of neglecting Milton!)

Everything about "Office Space" is both scathingly funny and painfully recognizable to anyone who has been gainfully employed in any office at the hinge of the 21st century. Just as familiar are people like the office temp, who has this annoying habit of chattering, "Uh-oh, somebody has a bad case of the Mondays." Even the opening credits sequence, with Peter slowly weaving in and out of lanes on the highway during morning rush hour, will ring rueful bells to those who've been mired on the LIE before 9 a.m. on any weekday.

So why wasn't this movie a hit when it opened? Maybe it was too close to the crest of the late-1990s economic boom. As downsizing becomes more widespread in the corporate universe, "Office Space's" scathing satire offers a kind of balm for wage earners' shaky nerves.

Then again, if a movie with the same subject matter, same tone and a cast with a relatively similar level of name recognition were to open, say, next weekend, would its box-office earnings dwarf every other new feature? I'm guessing it wouldn't. No big stars. No explosions.

No ... fog.

Finally finding its audience

It takes awhile for certain movies to be recognized as being vitally connected to their times. Home video has become the only means through which a film like "Office Space" finds its audience and, eventually, a place in the cultural firmament.

By the way, the DVD's "flair" (i.e. extras) includes a retrospective feature with Judge and other cast and crew members, along with deleted scenes, none of which were really missed in the original. Who needs more flair, really, when the movie has someone like Peter's slacker neighbor, Lawrence (Diedrich Bader), who may well be the smartest, sanest guy in the whole enterprise? When Peter tells him his dream of having a million dollars and doing absolutely nothing, Lawrence sagely replies that you don't need a million dollars for that. "I got a cousin who's broke and don't do ..."

Never mind. Just watch the movie, wage slaves. And watch your back while you're at it.

A cult above: five faves

So how does a film slip from obscure box-office underperformer to cult comedy? A mysterious process, considering that one person's cult hit is another person's really stupid movie. A few unifying traits: It should be off-kilter and slightly surreal; it should be tongue-in-cheek, at least a little dirty, and aimed low (14-year-old giggling-boy level); it should have a hapless or smarty-pants main character (or characters) getting into trouble or otherwise operating outside the range of normal; it should have catchphrases that everyone likes to quote.

Here are five:

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1974). King Arthur and his medieval band of screw-ups make their way toward the Grail, meeting killer rabbits, oversexed maidens and kinghts who say "Ni" along the way.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). Progenitor of the late-night, full-costume, audience-participation screening, it introduced audiences to Brad, Janet and, most important, Tim Curry's sweet transvestite from Transylvania.

This is Spinal Tap (1984). Rockumentary that made short work of the '70s English supergroups as it follows a made-up, washed-up band on its Smell the Glove tour.

Waiting for Guffman (1996). Faux verite flick centered on a hilariously clueless troupe of local "talent" putting on a show for the 150th anniversary of the founding of Blaine, Mo.

Napoleon Dynamite (2004). Jon Heder gives a memorable performance as the title character, the uber-nerd of Idaho's Preston High School.