Loudermilk Fans Must Stream This Hilarious ’90s Comedy

In so many words, Office Space is a love letter to the disenfranchised corporate employee who dreads the daily drudgery of a soul-crushing 9 to 5 job. Taking place in an environment rife with malfunctioning printers, micromanaging superiors (all eight of them), TPS reports, and missing staplers, Office Space is sympathetic to the plight of overworked and underpaid professionals who feel trapped by such an oppressively monotonous lifestyle. 

Office Space focuses primarily on Ron Livingston’s Peter Gibbons, one of many cogs in the corporate machine who works as a programmer at a software company called Initech. Feeling that his career is going nowhere, along with his love life, Peter is forced by his girlfriend, Anne, to see an occupational hypnotherapist named Dr. Swanson. During the therapy session, Dr. Swanson puts Peter in a trance that allows him to no longer care about his job but unexpectedly dies of a heart attack before he can bring Peter back to reality. 

No longer caring about his career at Initech, Peter runs the risk of losing his job when Office Space introduces two consultants named Bob Slydell and Bob Porter. “The Bobs” are tasked with downsizing the company under the guidance of Peter’s boss, Bill Lumbergh, but are impressed by Peter’s flippant attitude. They want to give him a huge promotion, while also firing his two best friends, Michael Bolton (not that one) and Samir Nagheenanajar. 

But it’s not just the workplace politics that make Office Space such a special movie. The camaraderie that comes along with absolutely hating your job and beating the ever-living heck out of a printer you stole from the office as a means to let out your occupational rage is what seals the deal. While the dark side of corporate life is most definitely exposed in Office Space, the film resonates with audiences because they can live vicariously through Peter as he reclaims his life by focusing on what matters. 

Office Space was a box office disappointment during its theatrical run in 1999, earning only $12.2 million against its reported budget of $10 million. Subsequent airings on Comedy Central and home video sales proved over time that the Mike Judge film was a sleeper hit destined to be a cult classic. On the critical front, Office Space garnered an 81 percent critical score against a 93 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Office Space will be celebrating its 25th anniversary this month, and its stark criticism of corporate culture remains more relevant than ever. If you need to quell your Sunday scaries this weekend, then watching Office Space on Max may very well be exactly what you need to cure your upcoming case of the Mondays.