October 25, 2009: Extract
It’s so hard to be excited to see a movie, and to severely lower expectations at the same time. For Extract, I tried to do both, and more or less succeeded. This resulted in a viewing which allowed me to accept and enjoy the high points, but not be completely devastated by the low points.
Writer/director Mike Judge, of Beavis and Butthead fame but better known to the rapidly aging Gen X crowd as the man behind Office Space (1999), is a creative force to be reckoned with but struggles in the arena of feature films. His follow-up Idiocracy (2006) is similar in tone and quality to Extract, which is good because that’s pretty much what I forced myself to expect. Extract is the story of a man (Jason Bateman) who has built up a successful local company selling flavour extracts from various foods. He struggles with crises at home and at work which make him question why he does what he does. Right off the bat, I’m not entirely sure of the purpose of their products, since they don’t appear to be small concentrated flavour bottles like the extracts I’m used to, but instead appear to be sold as beverages. I’m probably missing some symbolism here of an outdated man selling ridiculously outdated products, or maybe it’s a regional thing, but either way it doesn’t affect the core story. Bateman lives with his unhappy marriage. He wants to sell his company, but a freak accident at the plant leads to a possible lawsuit and con artists trying to take their cut.
Like Judge’s other films, there are whimsical, small character portraits scattered through the story, including a boorish neighbour, some unique personalities working on the factory floor, and J.K. Simmons as the other senior manager in the company. Ben Affleck steals every scene he’s in, as a bartender friend of Bateman’s, playing an irresistibly crude guy who gets all the best lines. Finally, Gene Simmons (of KISS) finds a cameo role as a fiery lawyer in which it actually makes sense for him to totally cut loose. Judge himself makes his characteristic brief appearance, this time as a rabble-rousing union hand inciting the crew towards revolt.
There are lots of hilarious bits in Extract, completely ridiculous and proud of it (particularly the whole subplot with Bateman’s struggles with his wife and how he handles that), but it really doesn’t hold together as a whole. This is only 3/4 of a movie, and I found myself amazed when it was clearly wrapping up but without actually establishing the resolution of some major plot points (what happened to one of the con artists, how things turned out between Bateman and his wife). It turns out that I went in with the right expectations. I couldn’t help but hope that it would be great, but it wasn’t.
Disappointment yet again from Mike Judge.
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