Office Space – Classic Film Review 777

Writer-director Mike Judge’s often hilarious, nimbly performed, beautifully observed 1999 office comedy is a very considerable success.

Ron Livingston stars as Peter Gibbons, a computer programmer who, after his therapist dies mid-session, gets a set of bad offbeat work attitudes which are rewarded with weird sudden promotion when there’s a company takeover.

Then Gibbons and a couple of other company workers who also hate their jobs, software engineers Michael Bolton (David Herman) and Samir Nagheenanajar (Ajay Naidu), decide to rebel against their greedy boss, the abusive division VP Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole), who has just hired two consultants to downsize the company.

Livingston dates cute Chotchkie’s waitress Joanna (Jennifer Aniston, in an unrewarding support part) and sets up a company swindle.

Judge created Beavis and Butt-Head (1993) and King of the Hill (1997). He appears in Office Space as Stan, Chotchkie’s manager, billed as William King.

(C) Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 777 derekwinnert.com