I've got bad news for you if you couldn't figure this out by watching his creations, but Mike Judge (Idiocracy, Beavis and Butt-head, etc.) doesn't much like stupid people.
Paradoxically, it's so easy to make fun of stupid people it ends up being really, really hard, especially because the standard definition of stupid people is "everyone but me" (like you've never pushed so hard on a pull door your hand busted through the glass like Bruce Willis breaking up a terrorist cell). Making fun of the terminally dumb is like beating up a dead guy: everyone can do it and it only impresses the chicks if you act like it was the beating that killed them.
Wait, that second part doesn't really apply, so let's go back to the first. If everyone can do it, when's it worth paying attention to? When your details are so well-observed it stops being about proving you're the only smart one and starts being about showing how you cope with it. Judge's latest movie Extract shows he's equally adept at covering his eyes and shaking his head at both the white- and blue-collar work worlds, but it doesn't quite stand up to his best work.
Jason Bateman's got problems. His marriage to Kristen Wiig has turned into a joyless death-march, his neighbors and employees are stupid, petty oafs, and just as he's ready to sell his flavor extract factory, a freak accident blows off employee Clifton Collins Jr.'s balls, leaving Bateman with the threat of a massive lawsuit.
Bateman's solution to all those problems? Trying to get down with foxy new employee Mila Kunis, of course. Little does he know she's trying to take him for all she's worth.
But Extract's plot is a lot more convoluted than that. Much of it involves Bateman failing to enjoy drugs and hiring a gigolo to seduce his own wife. Tragically, this isn't half as sleazy as it sounds — it mostly involves a dirty Ben Affleck passing around pills like a quarterback who throws tiny pill-shaped footballs that are actually pills — but then, nobody's having much fun in Judge's world. What they've got instead is a sense of frustration so heavy it would make Atlas himself say "Man, that thing is heavy."
Normally, Judge is able to parlay that frustration into some pretty serious laughs, so it's odd when his latest movie isn't terribly funny. It's got a lot of little laughs (I'd say "chuckles," but I hate that word except when it's used as an insulting nickname), but it rarely reaches the heights of Office Space or Idiocracy.
A comedy that's only kinda funny isn't necessarily a death knell if it's got some interesting business going in the margins, and Extract's got so much marginal activity that it is, for a while, a liability. Through about the first half of the movie, all those plot threads are so jumbled up they look like a basket of something a kitten got bored with.
It's just funny enough to keep you with it until those threads start weaving together. That's when Judge starts showing his teeth. His characters are easily duped, mired in their own self-deception, certain that a righteous pair of Cs is going to instantly solve all their problems. (I learned the hard way that it won't, but I've got a feeling my luck's gonna improve once I get my new Ds put in next month.) When the people in his world get trapped and desperate, even the smart ones end up doing stupid things, and worse yet, sooner or later they end up realizing just how stupid they've been.
The fact no one's immune from the dumb-bug may explain Extract's soft spot for all the bozos in its clown parade. I like movies that bring a distinct perspective to the screen. This movie's got that, and it may hold up on repeat viewings. From my first look, I wish we'd seen more of Judge's sense of humor, and that it hadn't taken so long in getting to the point.
Grade: B-