CLOCKWATCHERS (1997)
Label: Shout! Studios
Region Code: A
Rating: PG-13
Duration: 95 Minutes 44 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Jill Sprecher
Cast: Toni Collette, Parker Posey, Lisa Kudrow, Alanna Ubach, Helen FitzGerald, Debra Jo Rupp, Stanley DeSantis, Bob Balaban, Jamie Kennedy, David James Elliott
Indie office drama-comedy Clockwatchers (1997), directed by Jill Sprecher (Thirteen Conversations About One Thing), tells the tale of four women office temps who become fast friends while temping at a corporate credit company. We have timid new hire Iris (Toni Collette, Hereditary), the sarcastic Margaret (Parker Posey, Dazed & Confused), the man-crazy wanna-be actress Paula (Lisa Kudrow, The Unborn), and pampered Jane (Alanna Ubach, Waiting...) who seems to have an enviable life but whose fiancé seems like a douche-nozzle. The foursome start to hang out at their new corporate temp gig, bonding while also being segregated from the full-timers in what amounts to office apartheid, dreading their mundane jobs while also coveting the full-time positions that never seem to be posted of them to apply for. At a certain point they find themselves under suspicion when little knickknacks from around the office start going missing, which happens just after the arrival of a deceptively mousy new full-time office assistant Cleo (Helen FitzGerald). After the thefts start the already stifling atmosphere at the office gets even worse, and sadly the temp-friends sort of start turning on each other, falling apart as suspicion (and newly installed security cameras) seems to be turned towards them.
Indie office drama-comedy Clockwatchers (1997), directed by Jill Sprecher (Thirteen Conversations About One Thing), tells the tale of four women office temps who become fast friends while temping at a corporate credit company. We have timid new hire Iris (Toni Collette, Hereditary), the sarcastic Margaret (Parker Posey, Dazed & Confused), the man-crazy wanna-be actress Paula (Lisa Kudrow, The Unborn), and pampered Jane (Alanna Ubach, Waiting...) who seems to have an enviable life but whose fiancé seems like a douche-nozzle. The foursome start to hang out at their new corporate temp gig, bonding while also being segregated from the full-timers in what amounts to office apartheid, dreading their mundane jobs while also coveting the full-time positions that never seem to be posted of them to apply for. At a certain point they find themselves under suspicion when little knickknacks from around the office start going missing, which happens just after the arrival of a deceptively mousy new full-time office assistant Cleo (Helen FitzGerald). After the thefts start the already stifling atmosphere at the office gets even worse, and sadly the temp-friends sort of start turning on each other, falling apart as suspicion (and newly installed security cameras) seems to be turned towards them.
We also get a terrific cast of supporting character actors that populate the office by way of Debra Jo Rupp (That 70's Show) as the office manager Barbara, Stanley DeSantis (Ed Wood) as a guy who controls the office supplies and is tormented by Margaret on the regular, Bob Balaban (Best in Show) as the always-stressed manager Milton Lasky, Jamie Kennedy (Scream) as gossipy mail clerk Eddie, and Paul Dooley (Sixteen Candles) as Iris's salesman father Bud Chapman who is always trying to push her into a better job with some permanence, which in and of itself is not a bad idea, but she fights against it just the same, not wanting to become her father.
I saw this at the cinema, and ever since it has been one of my favorite comedies about working in an office, it's right up there with the slasher variant Office Killer (1997), Office Space (1999) and the underseen Haiku Tunnel (2001), all of which I hold in high regard. The comedy in this one is very subtle, it's smart and biting, it's obviously written by people who worked these sort of mundane and soulless office temp jobs at some point in their careers. I actually wouldn't even say it was a comedy, it's more of an office drama that has some biting humor throughout. It's very subtle about it, a lot of it coming from Parker Posey (Party Girl) as the bitterly sarcastic Margaret who not-so-quietly rages against the corporate machine from within, and who gets the films best line when she is terminated she says to Barbara "You can't fire me! You don't even know my name!", and you can tell from the office mangers face that this is 100% true. This is later reaffirmed when Iris, on her last day of work, asks for a recommendation letter which she pre-typed for her manager (David James Elliott, TV's JAG) to sign, and he doesn't even notice that it's not her name on the letter.
The four actresses have wonderful chemistry together, their bonding scenes are terrific, the dissolution of the friendship made me sad as they slowly turned on each other and start to fracture what was a wonderful temp-friendship. The film is well-written and quite sharp, highlighting the existential dread and stifling minutia of working inside an office space where your sort of a disposable cog in the wheel with no permanency or agency, saturated by a gnawing despair that you can actually taste. I also appreciate the soul-crushing Muzak that that is piped into the office, punctuated by the ticking of the clock, the sterile office environs the authentically weird office politics put on display, it makes for a an authentic backdrop to this biting office tale.
Audio/Video: Clockwatchers (1997) arrives on Blu-ray from Shout! Studios, presented in 1.78:1 widescreen. There's no information here about this being a new scan but it looks like an older HD master to me. Grain structures are anemic, and colors are slightly muted, but it's still quite a notable over the previous DVD release. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 20 stereo with optional English subtitles. The track is clean and well-balanced, as a mainly dialogue driven film the stereo track sounds perfectly fine.
The disc is barebones with no extras whatsoever which is a shame. This is a fascinating film with a terrific cast, I would have loved to hear from the four stars or cowriter/director
Jill Sprecher and co-writer Karen Sprecher who clearly must have been temps at some point, and I would have enjoyed that.
Special Features:
- None
Buy it!
Physical Media Land - use code: MOVIEDEAL at checkout to get 5% off your entire order!
