Office Christmas Party (15.)
Directed by Will Speck and Josh Gordon.
Starring Jason Bateman, Olivia Munn, T.J. Miller, Kate McKinnon and Jennifer Aniston. 105 mins.
It's a comedy about a party at Christmas, in an office, so there's no deception or miss-selling there. And it is funny, so that's that box ticked. The problem is – it's the wrong kind of funny. If you've seen the trailers, which are full of wild and raucous behaviour – photocopiers being propelled out of office block windows; toilet stall bacchanals; people sustaining serious injuries attempting foolhardy feats of drunken physical daring – you might reasonably be expecting some kind of The Hangover/ High Rise hybrid. And that's all there, but it's the backdrop. In the foreground there is some perfectly fine character comedy. And everybody at this office is terrible nice, but their party never quite gets going.
I only went to this in the expectations of free booze and free food, buoyed up by stories of how much food and drink critics and real people were plied with at the Bad Santa 2 screening last week. And there was lots of free booze there but no food. (Unless you count crisps, but for me crisps are just things to occupy your hands.) The only nourishment came in the form of some promotional tubs of alcoholic ice cream.* Surprisingly potent alcoholic ice cream, as I found out when I attempted to stand after some Toffee and Vodka. So I just crammed in as much ice cream and booze as I could. (I do this for you reader, so as to meld my critical faculties into a state where I a most receptive to a film's merits.) But during the film I didn't feel any advantage from being inebriated; there wasn't any moment when I was laughing a little louder than I would've been if I was stone cold sober. There are loads of smiles and wry chuckles in Office Christmas Party, but no belly laughs, no rock the back of your seats moments.
The key word in that title is Office. Though there is no connection with Gervais and Merchant's masterful creation, its influence is all over this film. Ever since the 70s, a large amount of Hollywood comedy has been forged by the improv: cocaine fuelled ego maniac doing take after take and coming up with different lines in each one. It was a terribly indulgent, hideously expensive, way of making films, and it often fell flat. But when it worked it would produce big, big laughs. Since The Office though, US comics have become obsessed with their characters, and digging deep into their characters, and finding a deeper character laugh from a deeper character truth. So, for example, Bateman has managed to come up with a version of David Brent, that is a nice and well adjusted. They seem like they're poles apart, but the delivery and the lines are very similar.
There are lots of highly talented performers, doing quality work here. But its humour for a TV sitcom that doesn't have a laugh track; not humour for a cinema audience looking for a rowdy communal good time. Even the fart jokes are character driven in this film.
* These were courtesy of a company called Cheers, and are well worth seeking out. There you go, that's the Christmas spirit for you, a plug done out of the kindness of my heart and with no hope of getting anything in return, but just because I liked them and feel like doing a good deed. I've no idea where you can buy them though.
Directed by Will Speck and Josh Gordon.
Starring Jason Bateman, Olivia Munn, T.J. Miller, Kate McKinnon and Jennifer Aniston. 105 mins.
It's a comedy about a party at Christmas, in an office, so there's no deception or miss-selling there. And it is funny, so that's that box ticked. The problem is – it's the wrong kind of funny. If you've seen the trailers, which are full of wild and raucous behaviour – photocopiers being propelled out of office block windows; toilet stall bacchanals; people sustaining serious injuries attempting foolhardy feats of drunken physical daring – you might reasonably be expecting some kind of The Hangover/ High Rise hybrid. And that's all there, but it's the backdrop. In the foreground there is some perfectly fine character comedy. And everybody at this office is terrible nice, but their party never quite gets going.
I only went to this in the expectations of free booze and free food, buoyed up by stories of how much food and drink critics and real people were plied with at the Bad Santa 2 screening last week. And there was lots of free booze there but no food. (Unless you count crisps, but for me crisps are just things to occupy your hands.) The only nourishment came in the form of some promotional tubs of alcoholic ice cream.* Surprisingly potent alcoholic ice cream, as I found out when I attempted to stand after some Toffee and Vodka. So I just crammed in as much ice cream and booze as I could. (I do this for you reader, so as to meld my critical faculties into a state where I a most receptive to a film's merits.) But during the film I didn't feel any advantage from being inebriated; there wasn't any moment when I was laughing a little louder than I would've been if I was stone cold sober. There are loads of smiles and wry chuckles in Office Christmas Party, but no belly laughs, no rock the back of your seats moments.
The key word in that title is Office. Though there is no connection with Gervais and Merchant's masterful creation, its influence is all over this film. Ever since the 70s, a large amount of Hollywood comedy has been forged by the improv: cocaine fuelled ego maniac doing take after take and coming up with different lines in each one. It was a terribly indulgent, hideously expensive, way of making films, and it often fell flat. But when it worked it would produce big, big laughs. Since The Office though, US comics have become obsessed with their characters, and digging deep into their characters, and finding a deeper character laugh from a deeper character truth. So, for example, Bateman has managed to come up with a version of David Brent, that is a nice and well adjusted. They seem like they're poles apart, but the delivery and the lines are very similar.
There are lots of highly talented performers, doing quality work here. But its humour for a TV sitcom that doesn't have a laugh track; not humour for a cinema audience looking for a rowdy communal good time. Even the fart jokes are character driven in this film.
* These were courtesy of a company called Cheers, and are well worth seeking out. There you go, that's the Christmas spirit for you, a plug done out of the kindness of my heart and with no hope of getting anything in return, but just because I liked them and feel like doing a good deed. I've no idea where you can buy them though.