The Parking Lot Movie

I enjoyed this documentary. The movie is bang on. My friend works at a Toronto parking lot. It's a battle with humanity every day. You really see the 'ugly' come out in people (and by people I'm referring to customers) that you wouldn't see in any other line of work. We're talking stupid people who don't know how to drive, how to park, who refuse or are reluctant to pay, who can't park between the lines, who forget to return by a certain hour to pick up their keys and the list goes on and on. Not to mention, the demeaning and often time hostile behavior parking attendants put up with because some people are just self absorbed, self entitled jerks who have been raised by wolves. If you want to know the 'who' of who someone really is...sit back and watch how they behave in a parking lot and how they interact with the attendant. People should be ashamed of their dumb ass selves. Best social experiment ever. Well done, fellas! Sadly, you captured the real life sh*t show perfectly.

LOL @ 'Don't forget to take your medication tomorrow'!

The underlying point that this feature-length documentary really drives home seems to be that, so long as your boss and coworkers are really cool, just about any gig can be your dream job. I kept hoping we'd see more of the attendants' interactions with angry, rude or ignorant customers, just to observe the new and interesting ways the staff would find to insult them, but the non-confrontational moments were entertaining enough to pick up the slack. A fun look at an interesting group of geeky, identifiable characters who care more about the liberties granted to their lifestyle than about getting rich with a high-stress job.

Yeah this movie was quite good fun. If you work in any service industry where people take you for granted and expect you are only there to serve them and put up with their attitude then you should watch this. It's good fun leering at a bunch of people slowly unwinding until some of them are nearly cracked up. After doing however many hours of sitting in the sun and taking sh*t off drivers all the time they basically can't let anything go. You have to admire their spirit but it's clearly doing their head in. Apart from that it likes to go on a lot about how clever they all are and what a brilliant wacky time they have. Hate to say it but the funniest bit for me was every time someone broke their barrier and you just heard that SNAP from round the corner and off they went racing to get their $35 off whatever drunk jock was trying to shag it or whatever.

All a bit pleased with themselves really. Very entertaining. SNAP!

The Parking Lot Movie covers a group of intellectual social misfits that love the comfort of working in an environment that they can shape to their will, but hate dealing with the society that comes and goes through their business. Watching their interactions with the college surroundings is classic. On one side, you have parking lot employee with a PhD in anthropology, passionately working for minimum wage, and on the other is a drunk sorority girl driving a luxury SUV (assumed to be paid for by her parents), and she's trying to skip out on her four dollar parking fee. Although the entire film essentially takes place in a parking lot, it manages to create quite a bit of social commentary, and really works as a fun and thought provoking film.

I picture The Parking Lot Movie working as a brilliant double bill with The Social Network. If one shows how intelligent outcasts can outclass society by working hard and becoming a powerful billionaire in just six years, the other shows how other intelligent outcasts can be just as happy removing themselves from the equation entirely, shielding themselves in apathy, and outclassing society in an entirely different way. The difference is really just between a Type A and B personalities. As the parking lot owner says: "I really like to hire Type B personalities."

Overall, the content the film ends up being much more engaging than you'd expect. The parking lot itself almost seems like a last bastion of creativity and normalcy in an invading world of mindless consumption. The employees really make it out to be an amusing struggle, and you can't help but root for them. Personally, I can't remember ever feeling closer to a group of people on film, and I'm already recommending this to like-minded thinkers.

Most of us have had unappreciated jobs... and so, can easily relate to the feelings of the attendants.

"The Parking Lot Movie" is not only a film about a parking lot, but also a metaphor to easily express the extremes of human nature towards one-another. Everyone has a dark and a good side. Funny how both faces come out in the most seemingly simplest of situations. Not only do we get to watch actual footage of these interactions, but the attendants (all well educated) explain their feelings to a fine point.

It was also interesting to watch how the attendants spent their "down time," when the parking lot was slow. Games, painting slogans on the gate arm. "Idle Hands" are the parking attendant's workshop.

Nicely done.