Tim Gardner outlines the best work movies for inspiration, or a warning
KEY POINTS:
Since you could argue that many films, no matter how far-fetched and out of this world, are about people doing work (for example Rambo - now he was an employee of the month!) the concept of "work movies" needs to be defined.
The work movies below are films that spend a sizeable bite looking at the day-to-day reality of work - jobs like many of us have, not like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman.
Here are 10 of the top work films, which it is recommended you view with some chocolate and a cup of coffee in the morning as you sit in bed on a premeditated "sick day".
1. Enron - the Smartest Guys in the Room
This is a documentary about the fall of one of America's biggest companies - the Enron Corporation. This event sent shockwaves throughout corporate America and lost thousands of people their jobs and millions of dollars in pensions. This documentary uncovers the darkest side of corporate America. It reveals the unparalleled greed of the top executives, and their consummate dishonesty as they lie to the world about Enron's success as it becomes more insolvent, all the while lining their own dirty pockets. This film is worth seeing just to remind you that sometimes management don't know what they're doing. Although anyone with a job could probably tell you that.
2. Thank You for Smoking
This is about Nick Naylor, a man who loves his job and does it with all his morally flexible heart, even though it is undeniably evil. He is the sharp-shooting lobbyist for America's big tobacco companies, and his words are like machine-gun bullets as he tears apart the arguments of anti-smoking campaigners. The fantastic thing about this film is his character is so likeable you can't help but cheer him on, even when he does things like charming children into questioning their parents and considering smoking.
3. Clerks
Made for less money than a new Ford Falcon, this black-and-white film is about a day in the life of two shop clerks in mid-town America. It follows Dante and Randal dealing with insane, irate and annoying customers. The day goes from bad to horrendous but they always find time to discuss what's important - how blowing up the Death Star was morally dubious because of the independent contractors that must have been on board. Fantastic - especially recommended for 20-somethings.
4. The Yes Men
This is a documentary/comedy about two ordinary guys whose aim it is to accurately represent corporate entities and thereby provoke awareness and a reaction in the public. They do this by setting up a fake World Trade Organisation website and accepting any invitations to conferences that are meant for the real WTO. That includes talking to a university class about the WTO's new venture with McDonald's to turn the toilet waste of people eating burgers into burger patties for the Third World. Entertaining yet thought-provoking.
5. Wall Street
This is a dark moral tale about the US finance world in 1985, back when everyone thought stocks and bonds were the way to make easy money. Charlie Sheen is Bud Fox - a hungry young stockbroker on the bottom of the corporate ladder dreaming of hitting the big time. With the help of some insider information he lands super-broker client Gordon Gecko (Michael Douglas). Gecko, whose motto ("greed is good") says it all, takes him under his wing, teaching him criminal ways of making millions. He has to ultimately decide if he's willing to sell his family and his soul for money.
6. Working Girl
This charming comedy is about a secretary played by a young Melanie Griffith who wants to climb up the corporate ladder with her brains and not her beauty. This all seems possible when she finds a seemingly supportive boss (Sigourney Weaver). When she finds out that her boss is two-faced and using her clever ideas to further her own career, she hatches a wily plot to get revenge. Upbeat and optimistic, in many ways the opposite of Wall Street.
7. The Secret of My Success
In this cheesy but endearing romantic comedy Brantley Foster (Michael J. Fox) comes to New York from Kansas to find the perfect girl and make it big. After several failed job interviews his powerful uncle gives him a job in the mailroom of his corporation. There Brantley hatches a devious plan which involves him inventing another identity - corporate whiz kid Charlton Whitfield.
8. Glengarry Glen Ross
This is set in the scheming, cut-throat world of real estate, where salesmen sell worthless tracts of land to innocent dupes. When an arrogant sales motivator (Alec Baldwin) arrives and announces a brutal competition (first prize: Cadillac, second prize: steak knives, third prize: you're fired) it sets off a desperate scramble for survival. All the salesmen have is the power of their speech to fool their clients and the dialogue is executed ruthlessly by the stellar cast including such big names as Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey, Al Pacino and Jack Lemmon. This is a savage condemnation of greedy con-artists, love of the dollar and self-delusion.
9. Cocktail
Most of you have probably already seen Cocktail but it is worth a repeat session. The quintessential 80s drama/rom-com, directed by Kiwi Roger Donaldson, is about Brian Flanagan, played by Tom Cruise with his trademark cockiness and that disturbingly electric grin. Brian's only goal is to get rich in the big, bad city. This movie has it all - the best friend, the beautiful girl next door, greed, betrayal, sex, death and many cheesy 80s montages. It's like sipping on a pineapple daiquiri, all sweetness and light, and must have inspired a generation of slackers to become bartenders.
10. Secretary
This wonderfully warped romantic comedy is about Lee (the unusually beautiful Maggie Gyllenhaal). Fresh out of a mental institution, she gets a job as a secretary for the anally retentive lawyer Mr Grey (James Spader). As their relationship develops within the confines of the office it gets increasingly more bizarre and disturbing - cue bondage and discipline. Although this film is quite unsettling due to the two warped lead characters, you eventually realise that, amazingly enough, they are good for each other. This film gives hope to all the singles out there - there is someone for everyone - even, dare I say it, your superiors at work.
