Extract

It’s not Office Space, but then, it’s not Idiocracy either. Writer-director Mike Judge returns with requisite skeptical empathy to the droll doldrums of the American workplace, where regular, decent-enough dudes get so bogged down by quiet desperation that they go numb and act dumb. Jason Bateman’s woebegone flavor-extract factory owner is a man on the brink of professional and personal catastrophe: He’s got a wife (Kristen Wiig) who’s all but given up on him, a hot new temp (Mila Kunis), who happens to be a gold-digging con artist, and a wastrel hotel-bartender friend (Ben Affleck), who dispenses very bad advice along with wayward pharmaceuticals. The actors make their little bits of business go a long way, and what results is another sketchlike trifle built from well-observed details. Sure, there are flashier, more adventurous movies out there, but this one puts in an honest day’s work.