Susan Granger’s review of “Extract” (Miramax Films)
Austin, Texas, writer/director Mike Judge (“Office Space”) is intrigued by the world of business, the ordinary, everyday, daily grind that churns the commerce of life.
Hard-working chemist/entrepreneur Joel Reynold (Jason Bateman) is just about to sell his self-made flavor-extract company to General Mills when a lawsuit over a freak assembly-line accident and sexual frustration with his emotionally estranged, sweatpants-clad wife, Suzie (Kristen Wiig), threaten to upset the industrial applecart of his existence.
That’s when his laid-back, sports-grill bartender buddy Deam (bearded Ben Affleck) not only convinces Joel to buy some illegal substances but also concocts a plan involving hiring Brad (Dustin Milligan), a dim-witted gigolo, as his new “pool boy” to seduce his wife so that Joel can feel free to canoodle with a flirtatious, manipulative sociopath, Cindy (Mila Kunis of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”), the new office temp.
Judge’s animated TV series, “King of the Hill,” concludes its 13-season run this month and it too often examines the workplaces of hero, Hank Hill, a Texas propane salesman, and his wife, Peggy, a substitute teacher. So did his “Beavis and Butt-head” about two teenagers working at the fast-food chain Burger World. But now, Judge switches his empathy from the drones to harried management. In a June commencement speech at his alma mater, Judge noted, “The job is a fairly recent concept in human history…I kind of was able to find this niche that was about real life.”
Memorable in other caricature vignettes are Clifton Collins Jr., J.K. Simmons, David Koechner, T.J. Miller, Beth Grant, Matt Schultze and rocker Gene Simmons, as a self-promoting personal injury lawyer. Despite the script’s episodic, occasionally inane, sit-com nature, Judge’s dry, deadpan wit prevails, enhanced by Tim Suhrstedt’s perceptive City of Commerce cinematography and Julia Wong’s editing. But, basically, it’s too bland – and then there’s the misstep of George S. Clinton’s overwrought score. So the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Extract” is a satirical 6. It’s a raunchy social commentary that will undoubtedly do even better when it’s released on video, thereby repeating the pattern of “Office Space.”
