This 1999 film by Mike Judge is an all time favourite and lives in my head rent-free.
It’s a stellar comedic cast including, but not limited to:- Ron Livingston, Deidrich Bader, David Herman, Jennifer Anniston, Gary Cole, Stephen Root, Ajay Naidu, Jon C McGinley, Paul Wilson, Richard Riehle and Mike McShane.
Plot: Peter Gibbons hates his job, the commute, the cubicle living and the constant dehumanisation. His only solace is his friends Samir and Michael. Samir is struggling to fit in and Michael struggles with having the surname Bolton. All of the staff including the put upon mumbling Milton are under the thumb of Bill Lumberg, the catchphrase spouting division head. He also has a girlfriend that everyone thinks is cheating on him and a neighbour called Lawrence who has a completely different view on life. At his girlfriend’s behest, Peter goes to see occupational hypnotherapist Dr Swanson and when he’s being put under Peter is unaware of the heart attack that kills Swanson before he can bring him out of it. Then Peter goes to bed, skipping the weekend overtime and time with his now ex-girlfriend, just doing nothing. When he finally goes into work, he leaves and goes to the local family themed restaurant Chochkis and asks out Joanna. As he goes back into work, he learns that Lumberg has called in efficiency experts (both called Bob) who are interviewing everyone for their own jobs. Already Tom (one of his colleagues is gone) and when he’s asked, the relaxed Peter just points out how demoralised and demotivated he is. Rather than angered, the Bobs love Peter’s straight-shooting and start thinking of promoting him. He then learns that Michael and Samir are going to be amongst the next bunch of lay-offs. As this is going on, Milton is moving further and further away from daylight to work and he’s laid off, but not told and is now no longer getting paid. When Peter tells Michael, the pair come up with a plan to use a virus Michael devised to take all the fractions of pennies used in the companies banking transactions and move it into a rounding off account they can access. If that sounds familiar, it’s the plot of Superman III that doesn’t revolve around Superman. They rope in Samir, apply the virus and leave.
Things go wrong when they realise that the virus took other stuff too and after 2 days over $300,000 has been diverted, rather than small amounts over 2 years. They guys panic, unsure what to do, even trying to look into money laundering, but these are three cubicle dwelling nerds and it’s all looking bad. Peter realises that he is the impetus of all this and has the $300,000 converted into cashier cheques and adds a confession, posting it into Lumberg’s office. The next morning, he goes in, expecting to be arrested and kind of ready for it, but sees the company in flames. With all the records gone, no one is the wiser. Since there’s no money, the three just go on with their lives. Michael and Samir get a job at a rival company and Peter gives up the cubicle life all together and goes to work for a construction company with Lawrence. Maybe he won’t be happy at work, but in a different job and things good with Joanna, maybe he’d be happier in life. We (just the audience) then learn that Milton burned the company down as he’s often threatened and found the confession and cheques and is now at a 5 star resort on some tropical island, already complaining about his treatment.
Notes: I love this film. Like Fight Club, it’s 25 years old this year, but the themes of avoiding hassle at work, the demoralising nature of office/cubicle/customer service work is just as apt now as it was then. We’ve all had jobs that we hated, but needed. We’ve all had people in our lives we’d love to throw off a cliff and if you haven’t, then that person was you. So I get this film, so much.
It’s also eminently quotable, from every line by Gary Cole, to Diedrich Bader’s “two girls at one time” monologue, it’s full of lines and scenes that 25 years own still live in me mind. I laugh, I think and I sympathise throughout all this and I will come back again and again to this f**k you to corporate life. This is how I wanted to end my year of 100 films. Mission Accomplised. 10/10
A Munky on Merseyside 