Office Space

So, this very well could be the greatest independent film of all time. I wanted to see it in the theater, but it only played in the big city 30 miles away, and only for 7 days. This is the best interpretation of middle America and it's work force. There is always gonna be someone younger and cheaper in line to take your place. The cubicles of America are a stressful place to reside. For Peter (Ron Livingston), his life sucks. The same dreary crap, day in and day out. Dumb job, pissed off girlfriend, and no way out. His girlfriend sends him to a hypnotherapist to relax him, and this is where his life changes for the better. The hypnotherapist puts him into total relaxation, and before he snaps him out of it, the therapist croaks. This leaves Peter into the best time of his life. He doesn't care about anything anymore. No stress, breaks up with his horrible girlfriend and goes after his dream girl-played by Jennifer Aniston. He goes to work still -kinda- and he bucks the system. By not caring he actually makes it through the "restructuring" with flying colors. In reality he gets promoted by being "a straight shooter", yet his hard working friends get canned. This leads him to front a plan to rip off his company for the greater good. They install a virus that takes the unrounded pennies and rounds them down into an account they opened. Brilliant? In theory, sure, but that is the problem with theories. Theories hardly work out. With the exception of The Armageddon theory, most of the time they suck. This one however, well, it sucks. The two year plan was mis-managed into a one day plan, therefore making them less incognito than they wanted to be. Instead of dollars per day, the first day they end up with a balance of $300,000+ and they know they are screwed. This is where the film goes from fun to possible jail time. It was made with no money and is absolutely brilliant. The language, jokes, and workplace are completely perfect and I like it. I have seen this movie a 100 times at least, and it never gets old. Really though, the movie has a secret hero. Melvin? Not quite. The Red Stapler, however, created a new dimension in pop culture. They made 3 red Swingline staplers for this film, and the feedback from people wanting a red stapler was so high, Swingline actually makes a Red one now. That is amazing. Pop Culture wins, and this film did a good job of making a point of that.

NBM rates Office Space - A Work of Cinematic Art