American Job

The epitome of a zine made into a film. I like to think this was made in the 1970s. A low-budget drama with a lot of humor, JOB has the feeling of a great film made over 25 years ago, the last great era of storytelling in film. Following a typical American worker through various minimum wage work experiences, JOB captures exactly what most people are expected to do to make a living: fit as a cog in the wheel, while the Golden American Dream of the lottery is always dangled out of your reach. Of course, you are not really expected to make it big, it is more important to be part of the ever-growing service industry. Yet, AMERICAN JOB is not condescending or sarcastic. Director Chris Smith keeps the tone realistic and modest - which is why it's so funny. How can you not laugh at some of the ridiculous situations we all put ourselves through? Like when our hero (played to the hilt by co-writer Randy Russell) gets talked into going to a strip joint. Or when a boss asks him to take his seat and consider `what he would do' if in the boss' position. The film is full of oddball conversations with co-workers, about secret inventions or the finer points of working an overnight shift and still being to do things outside of work. Although scripted, the film is uncannily real. The insight the film has is probably from using the actual employees in the scenes. The actors you see really do the particular job. They pull it off beautifully, not stuttering their lines or freezing in front of the camera, and not coming off in a fake-pity way, either. It functions best when JOB has the feeling of a documentary. The scenes come from real experiences Smith and his collaborators had. Actor Russell used to have a cool zine called American Job. The film was made entirely in the Midwest for $14,000. The cast and crew donated their time. Smith's follow-up film is the great (and real) documentary AMERICAN MOVIE, with many of the same themes and ideas as JOB.

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.

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.

I saw this film as part of a film series last night. This film was hosted by Tom Gilroy who is good friends with Chris Smith and was able to relay lots of information about the film. Some important facts have been missed by other reviewers:

Most importantly, this isn't fiction -- at least it wasn't scripted. Instead Chris asked Randy to revisit all of the crappy jobs he had, worked with all the original folks from those jobs, and filmed it all. There were no actors, and no dialog was scripted. Randy and his coworkers/bosses were merely asked to replay the circumstances while Chris filmed at the actual locations. Some folks are more aware of the camera than others, but everyone in the film is "playing" themselves.

Now quick comments: 1) This is groundbreaking cinema in that it accurately portrays boredom. Its pseudo-documentary television is unique and much more real than reality television. For this reason alone, the film is important. The craft is also very grand and the editing tells the story well and the way Chris intended.

2) This makes a great sociological statement about the state of work in America. This should be a part of everyone's consciousness. So many Americans work in jobs like this. To address a comment above, it isn't that Randy has a bad work ethic, he just knows that this is not the way he wants to live, and the only power he has is to leave a job (which is very powerful actually -- have you ever walked out on a job?).

3) This is the most boring movie I've ever seen. It's supposed to be. It's craft is riveting (see 1), it's statement is bold (see 2), but the actual images and non-action are as dull and numbing as Randy's jobs.

Make sure and approach it the right way, and this can be entertaining, without context, this would be unwatchable.

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.