Haiku Tunnel Review
Effusive, roly-poly writer Josh_Kornbluth co-directs and stars in this workplace comedy that's lighter in tone than Clockwatchers and less like an extended Saturday_Night_Live sketch than the more derivative moments of Office_Space. An adaptation of a monologue Kornbluth wrote about temping in San Francisco law firms, Haiku Tunnel is refreshingly funny because it avoids the easy -Dilbert route of making all the higher-ups incompetent fascists whose offices run like a paean to arbitrary inefficiency. In fact, the most dysfunctional aspect of the story is the "victim" himself, Kornbluth, who uses his own name to strike down the wall between truth and fiction. An office drifter who vacillates between contented anonymity and a deeper desire for human contact and fulfillment, Kornbluth is undone by the very conditions of his rootless existence, not by his "evil boss," a thematic red herring who's more of a forgiving fuddy-duddy than the devil incarnate. Kornbluth's wide-eyed manner of addressing the audience is intimate and endearing, and his sense of humor is as oddball as his wild appearance. His narration features sharp comic observations about the community he's studied and documented during hours of boredom, realized through lively devices. For example, as a different face appears in each frame, he lists the exotic names of all the receptionists he's worked with -- Charlene, Aileen, Charlena -- and the panoply of attorneys, all named Bob. The only familiar face among an unknown cast is Harry_Shearer, who, oddly enough, appears in one of the least inspired scenes, playing a familiar automaton guiding Kornbluth through the drudgery of orientation. Derek Armstrong, Rovi
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