Human 'Extract'

In the interest of full disclosure I should probably tell you upfront that "Beavis and Butt-head" and "Office Space" were two of the few memorable moments of 1990s pop culture for me, so my reviewing Mike Judge's belated workplace followup, "Extract," is sort of like your mom giving her views on your 7th grade chorus performance. Well, maybe that's not the best analogy: my mom went to my elementary-school concerts but then politely asked if she "still had to go to those fucking things" once I'd entered puberty.

Still, I am not my mother, and I can't really even explain how much I enjoyed watching Mike Judge's return to a work setting. Admittedly, this movie doesn't need to be seen on the big screen. (And neither did "Office Space," which is why it bombed in theatrical release but then became a huge cult classic selling millions of VHS/DVD copies and airing on television repeatedly for the last 10 years.) But I wasn't about to wait another six months for it to come to video, so to the theater we went on Saturday night.

No one seems to capture the minutia of day-to-day life better than Mike Judge, and in Jason Bateman, as Joel, the owner of an extract factory, he has found the perfect foil for expressing the relentless indignities of being a human being, whether it be as a friend, a husband or a boss. (Joel is all three, but you don't have to have been in management to appreciate the whining, "how-come-he-gets-to-do-that?" employees we've all had to deal with our entire lives.) I love how characters in Mike Judge films don't all drive perfect retro '50s convertibles, live in renovated lofts and work in the "coolest bar" downtown. His characters are real people -- who drive Toyota Corollas, live in tract housing and work in chain-hotel bars. Kristen Wiig scores big as Bateman's aloof wife, and Ben Affleck, in an underpublicized role, is perfect as Bateman's eccentric best pal, Dean.

The moment "Extract" began, I felt like I was watching a cult classic I'd seen a dozen times before. It's not that that the film was unoriginal so much as that life, for the most part, is. (I'm already looking forward to watching it on cable for decades to come -- you're gonna love Joel's neighbor.) I have strict rules about my entertainment and I have no use for science fiction, action-adventure or fantasy. To me, it's way too easy to let your imagination come up with outrageous stories to keep us entertained. I'm far more interested when someone is able to find the humor in real people in mundane situations. "Extract" -- like "Office Space" did a decade ago -- is a very subtle comedy that makes being an everyday human feel a little less lonely.