You gotta feel it for Joel (Jason Bateman).
The hero of "Extract" owns his own company (but hates his job), has a lovely wife (Kristen Wiig), who doesn't seem interested in him in the sack, and a best friend (Ben Affleck) who continually advises him to things like retreat into recreational drug use and hire a gigolo (Dustin Milligan) to seduce his wife, so he can cheat guilt-free with the new tart sent over by the temp agency, named Cindy (Mila Kunis).
In the meantime, Joel's dreams are about to come true: General Mills wants to buy his company, which manufactures food extract (cherry, almond, vanilla). When a workplace accident threatens to become expensive, the sale is endangered.
Oh, and I did I mention Cindy is a scam artist?
So goes the plot of Mike Judge's newest comedy, another smart, breezy, funny take on the day to day drudgery of life from the guy who brought "Office Space" to the world.
It's really not fair to compare "Extract" (or any other comedy for that matter) to Judge's cubicle classic, so I'll do my best to refrain from it here. But suffice it to say "Extract" doesn't have the zing or many of the memorable bits "Office Space" did.
(I said I'd do my best to not compare them. I didn't say I could stop myself.)
But this film builds its home on small, subtle touches. At one point Bateman draws a laugh simply by doing nothing in reaction to a particularly dense thing someone else says. He doesn't speak, doesn't smirk, frown, grimace, smile, or make any sort of funny face. He simply holds the same blank expression for a few seconds, long enough to tell exactly what he's thinking, and empathize with his situation, and it's brilliant.
And while Judge employs a bit of more scatalogical humor (there's an in-depth discussion on the vagaries of masturbation), Judge doesn't use it as a crutch. The focus of his film is character, and their actions and reactions moving the film along.
Bateman does his best to remain level-headed amidst a rapidly unraveling life, while Affleck as his stoner buddy tries his best to keep him from doing so.
Kunis is ravishing, and has a handle on exactly what makes her sexy. Her character uses every ounce of it, down to where she puts her hands and how her hair hangs when she's flirting.
Wiig is unusually appealing herself (she de-emphasizes her usual neurotic tendencies to just be a normal, pretty woman), and supporting players like J.K. Simmons (J. Jonah Jameson from "Spider-Man"), David Koechner ("Anchorman"), Clifton Collins Jr. ("Sunshine Cleaning"), and Beth Grant ("No Country for Old Men") nail down a rock-solid cast.
As with "Office Space," Judge seems to have difficulty wrapping up his film, leading to a sort of abrupt, climaxless ending, and there aren't the memorable lines or scenes that that other Mike Judge movie has, but "Extract" is definitely a spoonful of sugar that goes down smooth.
Rating: 4 Yaps
Read Nick Rogers' review of "Extract" here.