अपनी भाषा में प्लॉट जोड़ेंThe relationship between four female temps all working for the same credit company is threatened with the arrival of a new hire, who lands a permanent position one of the women was vying for... सभी पढ़ेंThe relationship between four female temps all working for the same credit company is threatened with the arrival of a new hire, who lands a permanent position one of the women was vying for.The relationship between four female temps all working for the same credit company is threatened with the arrival of a new hire, who lands a permanent position one of the women was vying for.
- पुरस्कार
- 2 जीत और कुल 1 नामांकन
- Coffee Lady
- (as Irene Olga Lopez)
फ़ीचर्ड समीक्षाएं
Good art often offers commentary on the times. When you're in the midst of an era, it's hard to see what characterizes it. I think Clockwatchers does a terrific job of capturing a facet of the temp world of the 80's/90's. I was a temp for a year in 1988. It's quite accurate.
But you don't have to be a temp to recognize these characters. Yes Dilbert, yes Office Space, and especially the beginning of Joe vs the Volcano have these same foils. But I think Clockwatchers' take was unique. The characters were well developed while still being archetypes. There was a subtlety and style that all the others listed chose against.
The direction and cinematography of this film is terrific. It takes guts to burn film doing a close-up of someone's glasses for 10 seconds. There is real art to this film. The writing, the directing, the pacing, editing, all right up at the top of the scale. The acting was fine, but I don't think it's the strong suit of this movie. Toni Collette is a standout. While I love Parker Posey, I think she was probably a bit over the top here. The Muzak, while as mood-setting as the buzz of florescent lighting, can grate at a viewer.
This film touched on too may things to list them all. Here's a sample... What are you doing with your life if you're waiting for it to burn off? Isn't it exhausting and poisoning to pretend to look busy all day? If you are a cog in a machine, and accomplishing nothing at that too, did you really even exist? Are the "troublemakers" in life getting us in trouble, or offering us freedom (note there are two people here stirring up the pot)? What is theft (and theft of services)? Where is the dividing line between unethical play and immorality? At what point do you give up on the dream of personal growth? Are some people "better" than others? What does beauty (and grooming) have to do with it? Does the corporate hierarchy define our worth to others or our self-worth? What is loyalty and betrayal, to whom do you owe how much, and how do you give consent to those obligations/ownership? Work/friends/family are all portrayed as villains and allies wielding this loyalty Sword of Damocles.
One IMDB reviewer said this film was a good way to kill time after work. That's terrific irony. :)
Maybe I was resisting because I didn't want to see my life up there on the screen. Currently working in a temp job (where I am typing this review), "Clockwatchers" is terrifyingly familiar. It's not a hilarious comedy, although it is quite funny. Certain moments threaten to veer into David Lynch-style self-conscious surrealism, but the director reigns these moments in, in the nick of time.
It's a film about small things happening in an enclosed space, and the friendships that grow between the most unlikely of people, due mostly to proximity. The mood of paranoia that emerges in the second half of the film is perfect - turning trivialities into monumental acts of anarchy and betrayal. The office becomes a sealed microcosm where the theft of a tiny plastic monkey becomes the end of the world.
Not everyone is going to understand this film - it's not "Office Space", which is more accessibly 'wacky'. You're not going to chuck it on with your mates and have a good laugh. It's much more sombre and serious and ultimately quite sad. And it's made me quit my job (so perhaps I should have given it 10 stars, just for that).
Each one of the young women in the film has a problem. They come together because they don't have a life on their own. Iris, Margaret, Paula and Jane, form a bond because they find safety in numbers. Iris is a clever girl whose shyness doesn't let her assert herself and is dragged along by the others that show stronger personalities. Margaret puts up a front, but deep down, she is just as vulnerable as the others. The most pathetic one is Paula, a woman who is pretending to be what she is not. Jane is waiting for the security of marriage to beat it out of being a temp.
When the sneaky Cleo is hired as a permanent employee, the problems in the office are magnified. As things begin disappearing from the office, all eyes point to the four temps. That is the beginning of the end of the clique, as they knew it. Iris is the one that stays the longer and she is the one that discovers the mystery of the missing things in the office, but alas, it's too late, because at that time she leaves the temp job.
Toni Collette, Parker Posey, Lisa Kudrow and Alana Ubach, are perfect as the four temps. Toni Collette has a better role where to shine as most of the story is seen through her eyes. Parker Posey is delightful as the free spirited Margaret. Lisa Kudrow also makes a good contribution with her pathetic Paula. Helen Firzgerald, who only has a few lines, cast a giant shadow as the creepy new employee that wants to make friends with Iris, only to be ignored.
The Sprecher sisters created a film that feels real a situation one has seen is prevalent in the office setting.
Writer/Director Jill Sprecher is extremely adept in nailing down specifics, and this gift for detail is in full evidence here. The film is about fear, lunch hours, pettiness, toilet paper, loneliness, rubber band balls, despair, paper clips, friendship, pencils, desperation, cocktail garnishes, anger - downright fury, actually - at being marginalized by the illusion of society - and much more. Toni Collette's face is still in my memory - her terrified-to-do-or-say-the-wrong-thing rabbit eyes, her rapture at feeling connected to her 3 fellow temp workers (and specifically, seeing her nose crinkle the way it does when she smiles), the desolation of seeing their bond destroyed by wretched but inevitable bone-chilling office politics and fear.
It's a small slice of life, Clockwatchers, but it's an important slice, one that anyone who has ever interacted with anyone on a daily, money-driven basis can relate to. If you've ever held a job, I'm saying, you will see yourself mirrored in at least some of these meticulous details.
क्या आपको पता है
- ट्रिवियाLisa Kudrow postponed her honeymoon to shoot this film.
- गूफ़When Iris attempts to retrieve the bag Paula drops on the bus, the small child who was sitting immediately in front of Paula vanishes. Iris immediately sits where the missing child was last seen.
- भाव
Iris Chapman: Everything is temporary. Everything begins and ends and begins again. When I look ahead, I imagine infinite possible futures repeated like countless photocopies, a thousand blank pages, and in each one I see myself, never hiding, never sitting silently, and never just waiting and waiting and watching the world go by.
- क्रेज़ी क्रेडिटThe opening credits are shown over the sound of the loud ticking of a clock.
- साउंडट्रैकSnooky's Theme
Written by Joey Altruda
Performed by Joey Altruda
Published by Josho Publishing/Careers-BMG Music Publishing, Inc. (BMI)
Courtesy of Ocean Park Music Group
टॉप पसंद
- How long is Clockwatchers?Alexa द्वारा संचालित
विवरण
- रिलीज़ की तारीख़
- कंट्री ऑफ़ ओरिजिन
- भाषा
- इस रूप में भी जाना जाता है
- Esperando la hora
- फ़िल्माने की जगहें
- 110 East Union St, पासडेना, कैलिफोर्निया, संयुक्त राज्य अमेरिका(former Clothes Heaven location; Jane's fiance picks her up)
- उत्पादन कंपनियां
- IMDbPro पर और कंपनी क्रेडिट देखें
बॉक्स ऑफ़िस
- US और कनाडा में सकल
- $5,37,948
- US और कनाडा में पहले सप्ताह में कुल कमाई
- $34,838
- 17 मई 1998
- दुनिया भर में सकल
- $5,38,338