Retrospective Film Review

Office Space (1999) • 25 Years Later — still hilariously relevant and iconic

Three company workers who hate their jobs decide to rebel against their greedy boss.

Few decades in cinema captured the frustration with consumerist culture and the soul-crushing nature of modern work as effectively as the 1990s. Both Trainspotting (1996) and Fight Club (1999) open with monologues or taglines that confront the viewer, jolting them from complacency: “Is this the life you chose?” they seem to ask. “How did you let it come to this?”

This direct challenge to audiences, demanding that they explain their existence to themselves and others, can also be found in Office Space. However, the approach is subtler. While those other films share a clear interest in exploring the dehumanising effects of the 20th-century workplace, Office Space is decidedly funnier than its contemporaries. Falling Down (1993) opens with a disgruntled man experiencing an existential crisis in Los Angeles traffic, while Office Space features an identical opening, albeit with a vastly different tone. Instead of lamenting…