American Job (1996) User Reviews

If you know the context, the film is superb.

[urinine · 7/10 · 21 March 2006]

I saw this film as part of a film series last night. This film was hosted by Tom Gilroy who is good friends with Chris Smith and was able to relay lots of information about the film. Some important facts have been missed by other reviewers:

Most importantly, this isn't fiction -- at least it wasn't scripted. Instead Chris asked Randy to revisit all of the crappy jobs he had, worked with all the original folks from those jobs, and filmed it all. There were no actors, and no dialog was scripted. Randy and his coworkers/bosses were merely asked to replay the circumstances while Chris filmed at the actual locations. Some folks are more aware of the camera than others, but everyone in the film is "playing" themselves.

Now quick comments: 1) This is groundbreaking cinema in that it accurately portrays boredom. Its pseudo-documentary television is unique and much more real than reality television. For this reason alone, the film is important. The craft is also very grand and the editing tells the story well and the way Chris intended.

2) This makes a great sociological statement about the state of work in America. This should be a part of everyone's consciousness. So many Americans work in jobs like this. To address a comment above, it isn't that Randy has a bad work ethic, he just knows that this is not the way he wants to live, and the only power he has is to leave a job (which is very powerful actually -- have you ever walked out on a job?).

3) This is the most boring movie I've ever seen. It's supposed to be. It's craft is riveting (see 1), it's statement is bold (see 2), but the actual images and non-action are as dull and numbing as Randy's jobs.

Make sure and approach it the right way, and this can be entertaining, without context, this would be unwatchable.

One of the best documentaries I have seen.

[impedio · 8/10 · 6 December 2000]

This is the closest I have seen a documentary come to reality. It is horribly sad and depressing. Our protagonist is such a loser! The scenes where she is working the machines in the factory really shows the lower end of our working environment. High school kids should have to watch this movie. They might pay a little more attention.

love it

[phesboy · 8/10 · 29 December 2012]

This is a great little movie and the sort film you don't forget. I have no problem with films like this that want to take you on a bit of a journey, despite the journey being one that nobody in their right mind would choose to go on. The film itself was far more engaging than most of the sludge Hollywood pumps out, so if you like these kind of low-fi documentaries and features about the young and poor, life's oddballs, obsessives, down and outs etc such as American Movie, Slacker, Clerks etc then you'll probably enjoy this.

My review doesn't contain enough lines yet so here another one. Hamburger, step-ladder, cardboard box. The End.

The pain of life...

[jenkert · 5 March 2002]

This is a great movie. Ground breaking in that it accurately reflects how mundane life can be. It's slow but so is the life of Randy (the lead character). The film transports you into the monotony of his life. The management types that think what they do is so important is so right on. One of my top 10 films of all time.

Is it real or fantasy?

[whofartedrecs · 9/10 · 11 September 2000]

I, like another reviewer, caught this on IFC, was caught off-guard, and got enmeshed in this, the American Worker's world. Who can't relate to this guy? Who hasn't had one of those crap jobs--and this movie seems to give a nice crap-job cross-sectional--that makes you just want to walk off and forget it was there and that you were ever a part of it? You mean to tell me you've never had to scrub a toilet or fry a basket of fries? You've never endured the realness of the American Experience? That is what this movie is about (for those with questions as to the movie's point). This movie is about what it means to many people to be an American. A counterpoint to bootstrap mythology. Whether you find it ugly or beautiful may attest to the quality of your character. Or at the very least, to the quality of cinema you are used to.

When I caught it, I missed the first five-or-so minutes so I didn't know exactly what I was watching. Was it cinema verite' or simply narrative? There were a few clues pointing to the later--as was the cast listing at the end--but some of it was so real it was as if I had been there before. Like I was the guy that left the job before him. Characters this great are born, not written. All of them were great, up and down the chain of command.

This was one of those movies that stayed with me well after the first viewing, kinda like a less-severe Gummo or Dancing Outlaw. If that type of cinema is your cup of tea--if you are a fan of Godard, Solondz (whom I thought the lead character was at first), LaButte, Korine, or Wenders--I highly recommend this movie to you. You won't be disappointed. If you are stuck on the old model of cinema, stuck on the boom boom boom and the t'n'a, stuck on the antiquated arc with the feelgood ending, you best run from this movie and instead rent a copy of Forest Gump or Bad Boys II.

Good stuff: 9/10

Awesome movie - How can I get a copy??

[thndrbass-1 · 10/10 · 3 September 2009]

I had this movie several years ago and loved it. I have since lost my copy and would like to get it back. The reviews here give an excellent review of the movie and its content. Chris Smith movies will gain more popularity I hope!! If anyone knows how I can get a copy of this movie or any other Chris Smith movies I would greatly appreciate it. The film explores the awful monotonous plight of the minimum wage worker which I happened to be in for a time in my life. It seems easy to get stuck there and seems to me to be another form of slavery in which the person has so few options that the best thing to do is to stay in the situation and moving from one low paying job to another may be the only way to get a break. Drugs and alcohol also play in heavy to keep the situation going in this direction.

A masterpiece

[connorratliff · 10/10 · 16 September 2005]

Like many, I discovered this film after enjoying Chris Smith's hit documentary "American Movie", and at first I assumed that this must have been one of his earlier non-fiction efforts, a prequel of sorts.

It was only after several minutes (and some questions about how many cameras they must have had to catch so many different points of view in a sequence of events) that I realized the film was actually a work of fiction, albeit one so true to life that I still couldn't believe these were actors playing roles.

This film is funny and painful and dark and true-- it can also be rough going for some viewers who may find it either too mundane or too close-to-reality. One friend I showed the film to said it was TOO good, and could I please turn it off-- after a day's work in HIS dead-end, minimum wage job, seeing the movie version was simply too heartbreaking to bear.

I can't believe this film isn't available on DVD. I would gladly buy it. It is one of the the unsung independent film triumphs of the past decade, and yet it has been seen by too few people.

an exemplary piece of anthropological film making

[gmccracken · 10/10 · 20 May 2000]

This work achieves greatness. In a 100 years anthropologists will assault one another in archive hallways to get their mits on a print. Patient, curious, thoughtful, endlessly observant, comprehending, this is an amazing piece of work.

An Amazing Independent Film

[climbingivy · 10/10 · 23 January 2012]

This is one of the strangest movies that I have ever seen.I watched this movie for the first time with my teenagers back when it first ran on the Independent Film Channel:IFC.We laughed a lot and yet sometimes the film would make one feel kind of sad and morose.I guess it is because the film's point is to show what it is like to work dead end jobs that do not pay much and what it is like to deal with ridiculous unknowledgable bosses.I was amazed at how accurate the film's portrayal was of some of the lousy jobs that I had when I was younger.What this film teaches is life is not always pretty and sometimes you have to realize that the job is about paying bills,not enjoying yourself.I have this movie.

Partly interesting, but often boring movie.

[Charles-43 · 5/10 · 26 December 1998]

Life is hopeless for an untalented man. He tries five low-income jobs during this film. Part of the film is interesting, but often it is boring. For example, how interesting is it supposed to be to watch the "hero" spend several minutes brushing his teeth? Part of the picture was a waste of the viewer's time. At the end of the picture no progress had been made in his situation. There is no more understanding of why this man acts as he does.

brilliant portrait of the career-less slob

[magnetichf · 2 May 2001]

this film blew me away. chris smith managed to perfectly nail every summer and part-time job i ever had. i always knew that those experiences had been formative in some important but yet undefinable way. smith manages to actually make a film out of it. some might call it "boring", but to me that's half the point: he expertly communicates the pathos of the mindless job that no one cares about, not even the people doing it. if you've never schlepped burgers at a fast food joint to make some extra money for college, or spent countless mind-numbing hours in a warehouse with people going nowhere in life, then you may not be able to relate to this film.

Best move ever

[godseyeview · 10/10 · 7 March 2014]

This movie is such a classic. So much better than American Movie. This has got to be Chris Smiths pinnacle work. I've seen Collapse and such its so boring. I mean there are millions of doomer porn documentaries or green peace activist or some weird Indian culture quirkiness but this movie hits so close to home with American culture and the plot about the lotto ticket and the ideals of Randy and how the satanic cyberpunk labyrinth eats him at the end. The characters he meets with their roles and hopes and dreams and the ones that have given in. The lotto ticket. I see it everyday.

Please release this film on DVD or torrent or anything other than VHS. I no longer have a VHS player and can no longer find one. I wouldn't gladly buy this on DVD.

Whole Lot of Nothing

[Mr Blue-4 · 4/10 · 8 March 2002]

I enjoyed "American Movie", so I rented Chris Smith's first film, which I thought was a documentary too. In the first minute I saw that it wasn't, but I gave it a go.

What a dead end film. Being true-to-life hardly serves you if you're merely going to examine tediousness, esp. tediousness that we're already familar with.

I'm sorry, but will it come as a relevation to ANYONE that 1) a lot of jobs suck and 2) most of them are crappy, minimum wage jobs in the service sector??? I knew that before I saw the film. It didn't really provide an examination of that anyway, as while the film struggles to feel "real" (handheld camera, no music, etc.), what's going on hardly plays out as it would in the "real world."

Would an employer be so cheerful to Randy when he picks up his check, after Randy quit on him after 3 days when the guy said he expected him to stay 6 months?? Or the day after abandoning his job (and screwing up the machine he was working on), that everyone would be so easy on him??

A big problem is our "hero"(?), Randy. This guy is a loser. Not because he's stuck in these jobs, or has a crummy apartment, or looks like one. He's a dope. He doesn't pay attention or even really try at these jobs. He has zero personalty. If I had to hire someone, he wouldn't make it past the interview.

I'm looking forward to what Chris Smith does next, but guys, knock off the "this-is-an-important-film" stuff. "American Job" doesn't work.

The epitome of a zine made into a film. I like to think this was made in the 1970s.

[cinemadaz · 14 November 2001]

The epitome of a zine made into a film. I like to think this was made in the 1970s. A low-budget drama with a lot of humor, JOB has the feeling of a great film made over 25 years ago, the last great era of storytelling in film. Following a typical American worker through various minimum wage work experiences, JOB captures exactly what most people are expected to do to make a living: fit as a cog in the wheel, while the Golden American Dream of the lottery is always dangled out of your reach. Of course, you are not really expected to make it big, it is more important to be part of the ever-growing service industry. Yet, AMERICAN JOB is not condescending or sarcastic. Director Chris Smith keeps the tone realistic and modest - which is why it's so funny. How can you not laugh at some of the ridiculous situations we all put ourselves through? Like when our hero (played to the hilt by co-writer Randy Russell) gets talked into going to a strip joint. Or when a boss asks him to take his seat and consider `what he would do' if in the boss' position. The film is full of oddball conversations with co-workers, about secret inventions or the finer points of working an overnight shift and still being to do things outside of work. Although scripted, the film is uncannily real. The insight the film has is probably from using the actual employees in the scenes. The actors you see really do the particular job. They pull it off beautifully, not stuttering their lines or freezing in front of the camera, and not coming off in a fake-pity way, either. It functions best when JOB has the feeling of a documentary. The scenes come from real experiences Smith and his collaborators had. Actor Russell used to have a cool zine called American Job. The film was made entirely in the Midwest for $14,000. The cast and crew donated their time. Smith's follow-up film is the great (and real) documentary AMERICAN MOVIE, with many of the same themes and ideas as JOB.

I really liked this film

[Lizzie-20 · 30 December 1999]

I didn't find this movie boring in the least. I really enjoyed the "middle management" types that he dealt with in each of his jobs. I loved the conversations that occurred between the American Worker and each of his different co-workers at all five jobs. His work ethic was lousy but he was amusing. I am looking forward to seeing "American Movie" as soon as I possibly can.

A funny and sometimes disturbing look at the American workplace.

[hyemily · 5 October 1999]

Some people might find this movie boring. The way todays movies are made, full of action and one line jabs, most people cant sit through something as steadily intelligent as AMERICAN JOB. The movie chronicles a small town nobody and his escapades through various meaningless jobs. It is so refreshing to have a leading character not be a loudmouth , for this small town nobody leads the audience through the movie without adding too much, rather to let them experience his situation along with him. This movie is smart, it is funny, and shows that you don't need millions of dollars to put together a good movie.

greatness & a precursor to greatness

[jaan-3 · 11 December 2000]

I saw this film about three years ago in a traveling film festival, and ever since it has resided on my proverbial top ten list of great films, along with such masterpieces as Fellini's 8 1/2, Kurosawa's Dreams, Nic Roeg's Walkabout, and Truffaut's 400 Blows. As with those much-celebrated films, this film possesses a quality that is the rarest in cinema; strong unique auteurism. Though it may not be the most entertaining of films, and it may be a little technically rough around the edges, it offers something that any and all viewers who see it should cherish... a privileged glimpse into someone else's truth, via the cinematic medium. I've wondered what would become of the filmmaker's career, fearing that he would be punished with obscurity for opting to make a film with much more integrity than entertainment value. But hopefully due to the success of his newest film, American Movie, I'll have the opportunity to see more works by a (so far) great filmmaker.

ps. Even though I've mentioned a lack of entertainment value in this film, it's still very witty and funny, and I would highly recommend it to anyone... even those of you who like cinematic dog-poo such as Titanic.

entertainment or indictment?

[m_parker8 · 22 January 2000]

This is a good movie, but not an enjoyable one. Sometimes i found it painful to watch. I've known people like the 'hero' Randy, sometimes I've been like him, and I've worked in jobs like the one's in the film. I'm lucky enough to be able to move on to something that fulfils me, but i fully understand the lifestyle. I don't know how much of the acting was acting, it was either uniformly excellent, or just completely real. Randy Russell's physical appearance carries his character perfectly. It would be interesting to see how he carries himself in real life. While sometimes boring as entertainment, the tedium was necessary. There were three or four points in the film that brought it all together, the beginning and the end especially. The first three minutes could be an amazing short film in itself.

The appearance of the woman at the reception shows everything that Randy isn't. The ease of conversation and the happiness with one's self that these few lines show are quite heartbreaking when we come back to our hero. I think the film is more about the social issue rather than about the system where one works. Yet then again it could be argued that the worker is a product of the system and society that he is immersed in. Tribespeople in Africa may have many many problems but from my experience they don't suffer this level of alienation, loneliness and despair that exists in the work structure. I don't know what the purpose of the film is. People existing under these conditions won't want to sit through this, and for people who've never experienced this life it seems like a nasty voyeuristic thrill. I only hope that seeing this film will make people want to change these conditions. A sad film, without much hope, but an essential one, if only to make people get up and make things better.

underrated and oddly hypnotic

[jpglynn-2 · 31 October 2000]

While not as slick (?) or well done as Smith's follow-up "American Movie", this LOW low-budget piece has a charm all its own. While we sympathize with the main character, we don't care if his situation improves. In fact, we hope he continues his aimless sampling of dead-end jobs just so we can tag along.

The real treasures are the conversations Randy has with his fellow loser co-workers. Though probably unintentional (because the acting is so bad), the characters' delivery of vacuous conversation has a unique tempo reminiscent of a Coen Brothers script, though not as extreme a caricature.

Smith tries too hard to shine light on the banality of everyday tasks with several montages of brushing teeth, driving, walking from place to place, etc. The resulting scenes drag on the already sluggish pace, but the destinations (the encounters with idiotic colleagues and superiors) make it worth the wait.

It isn't (as far as I know) out on video, but you might find it on the Independent Film Channel from time to time.

Somewhat interesting...

[jtuss · 25 December 1999]

I caught this film on the independent film channel and found myself immersed in this man's life as he wanders from one dead-end job to another in contemporary America. It is understandable that this is not a movie for everyone as it could be considered slow and tedious, however I think this movie shows that everyone has a story. Everyone's journey through life is not always like Indiana Jones or James Bond. Here we get life...plain and simple with all it's harsh realities.This is obviously not an escapist film but worth watching if you can find it.