Review of Office Christmas Party (2016) by Pipec — 16 Dec 2016

A Dirty, Intrepid & Indecorous Gift For Us.

Generically, major film studios follow a satisfactory pattern of releases with each of their films around year; depending on the genre, they serve certain periods (social, political, economic, holidays, etc) which coincide with the issues to be addressed in the movie, achieving a considerable increase reception and box office is concerned,—dollar bills to be more specific.— Valentine's day is full of insipid romantic movies, April and May share fantasy and action motion pictures, the fantastic summer is favorite season for dominant 'blockbusters', the month of July (4th) is useful for social and political film, autumn serves powerful dramas, October fills movie theaters with horror movies, and November and December (Christmas and New Year) is the perfect time for abominable familiar films.

In these agreeable seasons and within the genre, typical American parties are usually starting point to develop the plot of many films of this kind. This recurrent material applies in all situations, from wild college students—brotherhood—("Neighbors") to high school boys out of control ("Project X"), from fallacious husbands and boyfriends ("Hangover") to disoriented sisters ("Sisters"). Crazy American celebrations are almost a requirement in modern comedies. Around this matter, "Office Christmas Party" comes undone with a first-rate comedian cast, directors and writers specialized in this area and one holiday really unique. Insufficient Zenotek's branch in Chicago will convert into major Christmas' nightclub.

The president of an IT company—Carol Vanston (Jennifer Aniston)—decides to do a very large employment reductions and later closing Chicago's subsidiary down, nevertheless, there's one way to prevent this work tragedy. Her puerile half-brother —Clay (T.J. Miller),— Manager and Chief Technical Officer—Josh Parker (Jason Bateman),— and Engineer-leader of an innovative project around wireless fidelity—Tracey (Olivia Munn)—must incite to financial giant—Walter Davis (Courtney B. Vance)—to work with them. For this one, they decide to invite him to—previously cancelled—office Christmas party and so get to persuade him to accept. Nonetheless, and true to form, things get out of control and that objective and peaceful celebration will turn into a truly tremendous event of drugs, alcohol, and sex.

The script was conceived by six people—a very unusual number in this type of movies—: Justin Malen, Laura Solon, and Dan Mazer are responsible for creating the dialog of the characters while Jon Lucas, Scott Moore, and Timothy Dowling are who sketched the story in general. They employ modern technologies as the drive motor in the story, even so, setting cardinal purpose of Christmas aside. Something sad is that film's objective was achieve keeping the company on feet and not enjoy a traditional Christmas period, although, as I said, Christmas is a simple wrapping. The screenplay also presents a social and labor comment in the treatment of its characters, although the unreal plot doesn't fit into a sensible and realistic mind, it can design quite common roles in working life. With regard to lines of the dialog of the actors, you can see that they manage to generate—why not—guffaws with influence of pop culture, however, it does not armor itself from using the narrative comedian clichés of the genre. That imperfection in screenplay is fortuitously compensated with the real employees.

Watching the trailer and advertising for the film, what calls the most attention is imagine what the experienced cast can do with a magnificent plot. Most of them have already gained experience in this field—in acclaimed "SNL" or comedy movies,— which made the way more simple for the directors, who gave them free rein to extemporize, the result of this is the effective management and funny gags. Like all motion picture, some actors and actresses stand out more than others, such as Miller and McKinnon.

Although "Office Christmas Party" is not 'tour de force' within comical subgenre and as is periodic with this kind of film, exciting marketing sells a face entirely different from the real—do not bite off more than you can chew'—, it can be a refreshing and extremely entertaining option in volatile commercial cinema showtimes. Christmas tree has made a small and dirty gift in cinemas around the world, and even though it does not have a heart as tempting as its wrapping, this movie instinctively entertains you during its all 105 minutes—it deserves one award for being "the comedy film that manages to keep its enjoyable pace throughout its (extensive) duration"—.