“I didn’t get an office Christmas party this year. My job back in Boston had great ones that I loved going to. They started at the CEO’s house and kept getting bigger. The last couple years they were at a country club. The best were the couple times we had live band karaoke. Or the year there was a mashed potato bar, in the addition to the raw bar (yay oysters!) that was a staple of the country club parties. When I’d found out that I wouldn’t be able to stay on as a remote employee last year, it was right before what would be my last office party with them. The night had a twinge of sadness for me. The job I got set up with out here in LA was a remote gig, and most people were in Canada, so I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be getting a holiday party this year. What I didn’t expect was that the primary reason I wouldn’t get a party was that the Canadians would lay me off at the beginning of December. Yeah. That happened. I don’t wanna get into it now, but I’ll just say that I do ultimately think it’s for the best, so I’m trying to enjoy the first long break I’ve had since I was 12. But it did put this movie in some really weird context for me.
Office Christmas Party features a treasure trove of comedic actors: Jason Bateman, Olivia Munn, TJ Miller, Jennifer Anniston, Rob Corddry (he was co-hosting the trivia night I go to a couple months ago!), Kate McKinnon, Jillian Bell, Randall Park. That list is reason enough to see the movie, and I should stop the write up there and go play Wow. This merry band of funny people are employees at a failing branch of a large technology company. The only hope is to land a major client who happens to be visiting the office on the day of their “”non-denominational holiday mixer””. So they up their party game to show the potential client a good time, and all hell breaks loose.
This movie really hit the sweet spot for most of the cast, giving all of ’em ample opportunities to be irreverent and hilarious. It just took a while to really start getting to the good stuff. For a party that the movie’s titled after, a lot of screentime was spent just setting up for it. I ended up not caring too much about the events of the party itself, but more on the character interactions, just waiting for the next clever and possibly profane statement. And there was always another statement coming. And it was glorious.
Office Christmas Party – \m/ \m/ \m/ \n”