Extract
Mike Judge's last film, Idiocracy, was a satirical look at a future where the entire human population had been dumbed down to idiots. His newest comedy, Extract, is set in the present, but the people who inhabit it don't seem much brighter than the ones in the other movie. Fortunately, Judge knows how to laugh with them, not at them, so the movie never feels self-superior or like it has a mean streak. He also has the gift of cutting, bone-dry comic dialogue, which helps this movie stand out.
The main character is Joel Reynolds (Jason Bateman), small-business owner of the local Reynold's Extract factory. He's a nice guy, never yells at his employees, even when they intentionally sabotage daily production when they just decide to stop working (because they think someone else on the plant floor isn't working harder than they are), or when they cause accidents that results in one of his workers (Clifton Collins, Jr) having to have a testicle removed. The victim of the accident, named Step, doesn't initially plan to press charges against the company. He's a laid back guy, and he understands that it was an accident. But then Step is approached by the beautiful young woman who has replaced him at the factory. The woman is Cindy (Mila Kunis). We know she's a con artist, and when she reads about the accident in the newspaper, she takes over Step's position and uses information from the factory to find out where he lives, and get close to and seduce him. She convinces him to sue the company for millions, so she can ultimately run off with the money. Cindy even convinces Step to hire the best known lawyer in the local area (his faces are on all the bus benches), Joe Adler. Adler is played by rocker Gene Simmons, and it's a lively role. Probably his best performance since Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park.
Cindy catches Joel's attention, as well. He's struck by her the day she joins the factory, and is thrilled they have something in common. ("She's interested in food flavoring extracts"!) Joel's personal life is dire, due to the fact that his wife Suzie (Kristen Wiig) won't allow sex after 8 PM. She symbolizes that he's too late for sex by putting on her sweat pants, and tying the cord on the pants extra tight around her waist. Joel tries to get home at the right time, but he's frequently ambushed by his annoying neighbor, Nathan (David Koechner), who seems to be waiting in the bushes for Joel to come home so he can talk his ear off as soon as the poor guy pulls into his driveway. Joel is frustrated sexually, and frequently turns to a burned-out bartender named Dean (Ben Affleck) for advice. Dean's advice? Joel should hire a gigolo to seduce his wife. That way, Joel can pretend to not know about it, and when he eventually "learns" that Suzie has been having sex with another man, he can cheat on her with Cindy guilt-free. Joel seems like too smart of a guy to listen to the advice of Dean, who doesn't come across as the brightest bulb out there. The gigolo that Dean hires for him (Dustin Milligan) is even dumber than he is. The fact that Joel goes along with it can be summed up to poor judgement and the horse tranquilizers Dean accidentally gave him to calm his nerves.
Despite how crazy it all sounds, Mike Judge is able to keep a pretty tight reign on his characters. The movie is very low key, focused on sharp dialogue that catches you off guard, instead of broad laughs. Extract is a smart little movie about very stupid people. It likes to find humor in little, everyday things. I enjoyed the way that the workers on the plant's assembly line were constantly finding fault with each other's performance, while ignoring their own flaws in their work. These are the kind of things that happen everyday in our lives, but we seldom see them happening to people in movies. I have heard some critics complain that the movie lacks focus, but I disagree. It may not exactly be a plot-driven film, but it is focused strong enough on the characters that it still comes across as a very strong ensemble piece. The screenplay allows each of the movie's large cast of oddballs a chance to stand out. I liked the characters, and I found a lot of the things they said to be funny. It doesn't quite have the manic energy of Judge's earlier cult classic, Office Space, but it's not supposed to. This is a quieter movie, but not exactly a gentler one. (The conclusion to the subplot about the obnoxious neighbor is a wickedly funny surprise.)
The main thing that makes the movie work, though, is the cast obviously seems to be enjoying themselves. Jason Bateman is great in his slow-burn role. His Joel is a guy who obviously keeps a lot of things bottled up, and although he never really comes close to exploding, you can sometimes tell he would like to. Mila Kunis also seems to be enjoying her role as the sexy con woman who manages to use and seduce every man in her path, although her last scene with Bateman does suggest she has at least a little bit of heart. The real stand outs, though, come from the smaller characters. J.K. Simmons is a wonderful actor who has been wasted in throwaway roles so far this year. He finally gets a part suited for him as Joel's partner in the company, who can never remember the names of the employees, so he just refers to them by insults. Ben Affleck also throws himself completely into his part, and seems to be loving every minute. He gets some of the film's biggest laughs, like when he explains that Xanax is the cure for everything, even head colds. Other strong supporting performances come from Koechner as the neighbor, and Milligan as the dim-witted gigolo who doesn't seem to understand anything, no matter how you try to explain it to him.
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