Extract (2009)

Mike Judge’s “Office Space” is a classic comedy for anyone who works at a desk and stores paper clips as if they were nuts for winter. “Extract” is another work comedy from the man who also gave us “Beavis and Butthead,” but set in the blue-collar arena. Jason Bateman is Joel Reynolds, owner of a company that makes baking extract. Running a business is the American Dream, right? Not for Joel. His desperate plan to sell out and retire with his wife (Kristin Wiig) is undone thanks to a bizarre factory-floor accident, a goofball bartender pal (Ben Affleck), and the arrival of a hot con artist (Mila Kunis). Judge makes small comedies about real people – oddballs and eccentrics, sure – but people we all know, and love and hate, including the gabby neighbor. His targeting of the privileged is ruthless, while his needling of common folk is rarely mean. Funny? Yes. But “Extract” is scaled as a TV movie, even if the warped marriage comedy thread playfully echoes “American Beauty.” B

Bridesmaids (2011)

The Kristen-Wiig-spearheaded “Bridesmaids” is at once a female take on all-guy flicks such as “The Hangover” and a goofy yet sharp take on women wondering how they fit into the world, as opposed to the insufferable women who think the world revolves around them as in “Sex and the City 2.” This comedy revolves around Annie (Wiig), a mid-30s single woman with a failed business behind her, a dumpy jewelry store gig, and a crude fuck buddy (Jon Hamm) who doesn’t even appreciate the sex. When she learns her childhood BFF (Maya Rudolph, another “SNL” vet as is Wiig) is engaged, Annie reacts not with happiness, but despair. She fears being alone.

Annie means well, for sure, but her mental id makes hell for the bride’s life, including a literal shit-storm pileup at a high-dollar dress shop and a Las Vegas plane ride to nowhere. The best comedies, as with the best fantasy or sci-fi or romance films, take relatable, real people and put them in outlandish situations, and this is it: Drunk Annie balling at the death of Wilson in “Cast Away” and the sister-in-law bridesmaid (Melissa McCarthy, stealing the movie) not giving a flying F about what people think, and laying it all out for men. McCarthy says of a guy at a party, “I’m going to climb that like a tree.” Make a movie about her.

This is a fun movie, smart, happy to make an ass of its heroine, but never treating her as stupid or in a demeaning way. Nor are any of the women beholden to men, although they long for relationships, so they exist in a world Katherine Heigl fans cannot contemplate. It’s slow to go, and many scenes drag for a beat too long, as does every other Judd Apatow creation. He produced this. Still needs a sharper editor. But what a hilarious film. B+