American Job

this film blew me away. chris smith managed to perfectly nail every summer and part-time job i ever had. i always knew that those experiences had been formative in some important but yet undefinable way. smith manages to actually make a film out of it. some might call it "boring", but to me that's half the point: he expertly communicates the pathos of the mindless job that no one cares about, not even the people doing it. if you've never schlepped burgers at a fast food joint to make some extra money for college, or spent countless mind-numbing hours in a warehouse with people going nowhere in life, then you may not be able to relate to this film.

While not as slick (?) or well done as Smith's follow-up "American Movie", this LOW low-budget piece has a charm all its own. While we sympathize with the main character, we don't care if his situation improves. In fact, we hope he continues his aimless sampling of dead-end jobs just so we can tag along.

The real treasures are the conversations Randy has with his fellow loser co-workers. Though probably unintentional (because the acting is so bad), the characters' delivery of vacuous conversation has a unique tempo reminiscent of a Coen Brothers script, though not as extreme a caricature.

Smith tries too hard to shine light on the banality of everyday tasks with several montages of brushing teeth, driving, walking from place to place, etc. The resulting scenes drag on the already sluggish pace, but the destinations (the encounters with idiotic colleagues and superiors) make it worth the wait.

It isn't (as far as I know) out on video, but you might find it on the Independent Film Channel from time to time.

This is a good movie, but not an enjoyable one. Sometimes i found it painful to watch. I've known people like the 'hero' Randy, sometimes I've been like him, and I've worked in jobs like the one's in the film. I'm lucky enough to be able to move on to something that fulfils me, but i fully understand the lifestyle. I don't know how much of the acting was acting, it was either uniformly excellent, or just completely real. Randy Russell's physical appearance carries his character perfectly. It would be interesting to see how he carries himself in real life. While sometimes boring as entertainment, the tedium was necessary. There were three or four points in the film that brought it all together, the beginning and the end especially. The first three minutes could be an amazing short film in itself.

The appearance of the woman at the reception shows everything that Randy isn't. The ease of conversation and the happiness with one's self that these few lines show are quite heartbreaking when we come back to our hero. I think the film is more about the social issue rather than about the system where one works. Yet then again it could be argued that the worker is a product of the system and society that he is immersed in. Tribespeople in Africa may have many many problems but from my experience they don't suffer this level of alienation, loneliness and despair that exists in the work structure. I don't know what the purpose of the film is. People existing under these conditions won't want to sit through this, and for people who've never experienced this life it seems like a nasty voyeuristic thrill. I only hope that seeing this film will make people want to change these conditions. A sad film, without much hope, but an essential one, if only to make people get up and make things better.

This is a great movie. Ground breaking in that it accurately reflects how mundane life can be. It's slow but so is the life of Randy (the lead character). The film transports you into the monotony of his life. The management types that think what they do is so important is so right on. One of my top 10 films of all time.

I saw this film about three years ago in a traveling film festival, and ever since it has resided on my proverbial top ten list of great films, along with such masterpieces as Fellini's 8 1/2, Kurosawa's Dreams, Nic Roeg's Walkabout, and Truffaut's 400 Blows. As with those much-celebrated films, this film possesses a quality that is the rarest in cinema; strong unique auteurism. Though it may not be the most entertaining of films, and it may be a little technically rough around the edges, it offers something that any and all viewers who see it should cherish... a privileged glimpse into someone else's truth, via the cinematic medium. I've wondered what would become of the filmmaker's career, fearing that he would be punished with obscurity for opting to make a film with much more integrity than entertainment value. But hopefully due to the success of his newest film, American Movie, I'll have the opportunity to see more works by a (so far) great filmmaker.

ps. Even though I've mentioned a lack of entertainment value in this film, it's still very witty and funny, and I would highly recommend it to anyone... even those of you who like cinematic dog-poo such as Titanic.