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.

Some people might find this movie boring. The way todays movies are made, full of action and one line jabs, most people cant sit through something as steadily intelligent as AMERICAN JOB. The movie chronicles a small town nobody and his escapades through various meaningless jobs. It is so refreshing to have a leading character not be a loudmouth , for this small town nobody leads the audience through the movie without adding too much, rather to let them experience his situation along with him. This movie is smart, it is funny, and shows that you don't need millions of dollars to put together a good movie.

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 didn't find this movie boring in the least. I really enjoyed the "middle management" types that he dealt with in each of his jobs. I loved the conversations that occurred between the American Worker and each of his different co-workers at all five jobs. His work ethic was lousy but he was amusing. I am looking forward to seeing "American Movie" as soon as I possibly can.

I, like another reviewer, caught this on IFC, was caught off-guard, and got enmeshed in this, the American Worker's world. Who can't relate to this guy? Who hasn't had one of those crap jobs--and this movie seems to give a nice crap-job cross-sectional--that makes you just want to walk off and forget it was there and that you were ever a part of it? You mean to tell me you've never had to scrub a toilet or fry a basket of fries? You've never endured the realness of the American Experience? That is what this movie is about (for those with questions as to the movie's point). This movie is about what it means to many people to be an American. A counterpoint to bootstrap mythology. Whether you find it ugly or beautiful may attest to the quality of your character. Or at the very least, to the quality of cinema you are used to.

When I caught it, I missed the first five-or-so minutes so I didn't know exactly what I was watching. Was it cinema verite' or simply narrative? There were a few clues pointing to the later--as was the cast listing at the end--but some of it was so real it was as if I had been there before. Like I was the guy that left the job before him. Characters this great are born, not written. All of them were great, up and down the chain of command.

This was one of those movies that stayed with me well after the first viewing, kinda like a less-severe Gummo or Dancing Outlaw. If that type of cinema is your cup of tea--if you are a fan of Godard, Solondz (whom I thought the lead character was at first), LaButte, Korine, or Wenders--I highly recommend this movie to you. You won't be disappointed. If you are stuck on the old model of cinema, stuck on the boom boom boom and the t'n'a, stuck on the antiquated arc with the feelgood ending, you best run from this movie and instead rent a copy of Forest Gump or Bad Boys II.

Good stuff: 9/10