Office Christmas Party

Dir: Josh Gordon, Will Speck

2016

***

Office Christmas Parties have featured in films before but it is kind of surprising that they haven’t had their own movie until now. I expected absolute rubbish from this film but I was actually pleasantly surprised. Of course, no real office Christmas party is ever quite this over the top but it is the little subtleties that really make it worth watching. I like that way the film makers wrote a little backstory for the film in order to give it some purpose. It really didn’t need one, it could have just been a silly film for the sake of it but the character development was certainly appreciated. I’ve been a few office parties in my career, some rather extravagant, some rather forgettable. I actually got escorted from the premises at my Christmas party this year (very proud of it I am too) but it really wasn’t difficult, the party needed some controversy and it was eventually left to me to bring it. I had support and I haven’t been sacked, so all is good. However, my Christmas party wasn’t in the office, and I’m pretty sure I would be asked to leave if I was caught having sex with a sheep in the toilets. However, it does happen and I know quite a few people who have got up to, or know someone who has got up to bad things at the annual office party. I have witnessed drug taking, sexual shenanigans and the classic photocopying of the genitals. In Josh Gordon and Will Speck’s comedy, the photocopying goes 3D. It is little touches like that that make Office Christmas Party a bit more special than it could have been. The film relies a little too heavily on tiresome moments of improvisation, and features a somewhat pointless subplot involving a female pimp/gangster and has an over-elaborate finale, but it gets pretty much everything else right. Jason Bateman plays that character he always plays but it fits the bill perfectly. Olivia Munn is more than your usual comedy film female love-interest and T.J. Miller is actually quite funny. Kate McKinnon is brilliant and I am slightly in love with her. Although I think she is hugely talented, I haven’t quite warmed to Jillian Bell, I think she’s still looking for that great role but it was great seeing Courtney B. Vance in a silly comedy and Jennifer Aniston is on fine form and is so much better at comedy now than she ever was in Friends. While many criticised the story for being a little complicated I personally thought it worked. Sure, it could have worked as a feature-length sketch show, jumping from one situation to another, but I still liked it the way it was. It is also true that the forced sentimentality was unnecessary but it really isn’t that bad and it is a Christmas film after all. It is 2016’s answer to The Night Before and hopefully the continuation of non-Christmas Christmas films of this ilk continues and the sillier the better. It’s a big-budget belter, no masterpiece sure, but a lot better than I expected from the people who made The Switch and Blades of Glory. Festive films are generally so bad that I would probably forgive and maybe even appreciate a sequel.