AT THE OFFICE
Lots of us spend many hours a week at the office, so it is a location with almost universal interest. But it isn’t all that easy to make good office movies- the setting is small with little opportunity to “open out.” These are my favorite “at the office” movies.
A Spencer Tracy-Katherine Hepburn film is almost always a good place to start any appropriate category, and Desk Set (1957) certainly fills the bill. Tracy is an efficiency expert brought in by Ms. Hepburn’s TV network boss to improve productivity. Of course, they meet, they clash, they fall in love, with lots of great one-liners on the way. Still very entertaining and right on the money. 
Sir Anthony Hopkins (of all people!) is the title character in The Efficiency Expert (1992) an edgy little Australian comedy that cuts both ways. If you thought maybe Mr. Hopkins couldn’t handle light comedy check this out. He is letter perfect as the outside expert from Hell.
And while we know Meryl Streep can play absolutely anything, she still stuns us as the worst boss ever in The Devil Wears Prada (2006), driving poor Ann Hathaway (and much of the audience) to distraction with her arbitrary devilish directions. But Hathaway soldiers on against seemingly impossible odds, and we’re pulling for her and hating Streep for much of the film. 
Before we leave comedies, one of my favorites from any category is the hysterical 9 To 5 (1980) with Lilly Tomlin, Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton plotting and exacting delicious revenge on their tyrannical boss, Dabney Coleman. So it’s a little over the top- hey, it’s a satire!
From a much darker palette, Rod Serling’s Patterns (1956) is about as good as it gets in portraying corporate politics, one-upmanship and boot-licking sycophancy. Ed Begley is the vaguely humanistic employee of Everett Sloan, almost but not quite a 
parody of corporate greed and sheer wrong-headedness. Every CEO everywhere should have to watch this movie.
Finally, a real sleeper from 1997, Clockwatchers. It did almost no business and quickly went to video, where you can still find it. Parker Posey and Lisa Kudrow head a fine ensemble cast in this stunning black comedy about the American workplace and the American soul. The film cleverly shows how little real work is done. It is also most revealing of how friendships (and reputations) are made and lost in today’s fast-moving society.
All of the films in this column are available on DVD and for streaming. All are for grown-ups.