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Brazil is a feast for the eyes, despite being cruel and dark and realistic, as sad as its intended finale is. Pryce may not have the best chemistry with Kim Greist, who plays Jill, but he is the full embodiment of the typical working man, someone who despises what he does, but...well, what else is he going to do aside from dream about escape? Could someone as unimportant and insignificant as he actually escape? Should he even harbor such thoughts? Though its pitch-black finale isn't exactly the best advertisement for fighting the system (and for a time, there was a possibility that no one would see that ending, as Universal Pictures needlessly tampered with the film), Brazil is a nihilistic classic that believes in the power of the imagination, a power that can conquer even the strongest spirit.

Office Space

How could this list even be created without honoring Office Space, one of the biggest cult comedies of all time? Here is a film that has three guys beating a fax machine to death, a waitress wanting to shove all her buttons of "flair" down her boss's throat, and an unfortunately named man lying to a couple of job consultants that he loves the music of Michael Bolton, his namesake. Office Space, which comes from the sly mind of Mike Judge, creator of "Beavis and Butthead" and "King of the Hill", is a movie that encapsulates every dark or wild-eyed thought you may have had at your job, whether it's at a health care firm, an insurance company, technical support...or whatever it is that Initech does. Initech is where Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston, one of the more criminally underused actors) works, and boy, does he hate his job.

Peter hates his job so much that he goes to a hypnotherapist to calm down; unfortunately, things go awry and he stays in a state of complete relaxation. He's so relaxed that, the next day, he decides not to work on the weekend, to quit his job, and ask out the pretty waitress at a nearby restaurant. Ironically, this general malaise gets him promoted, but his friends fired. They decide to pay back the company they loathe so much with a sneaky moneymaking scheme that shouldn't really work. Ah, but this is the movies, and as realistically as Initech is portrayed, it's worth having a happy ending. Still, Office Space is a movie about people who hate their jobs, if only because they are boring, they are dull, and...well, these people may just have a case of the Mondays.

In The Loop

First and foremost, In The Loop is the funniest film of 2009, to date, and you probably haven't heard of it or seen it. If you're lucky, this British comedy is playing somewhere near you or you can get the film on Video On Demand. Here's the deal: if you like shows like "The Office" or "The West Wing", you must see In The Loop. It's in your best interest to wade into this film, which deromanticizes politics, whether in London or Washington, D.C. This satirical farce focuses on the mistake a cabinet minister in the British Parliament makes when he says that war with an unnamed Middle Eastern country is "unforeseeable", as such statements go against the conventional wisdom among most British politicians. The minister (Tom Hollander) comes in the firing line of Malcolm Tucker, a vile press director whose behavior would be more shocking if his use of profanity wasn't so damn unique.

Eventually, Tucker and the minister come in contact with American politicians, who either want the war to go through or want there to be no action at all; either way, none of the characters are morally clean, and you don't really envy any of their jobs. Who would want to work in a place where you are reamed out for speaking your mind? Unless you're a sadist, such a prospect might not sound so inviting. Though In The Loop, directed and co-written by Armando Iannucci, is a pleasure to watch and easily one of the best political satires, it's not a film that makes you want to work in politics, especially since people can lose their position so easily, even if all that matters is expressing your opinion.

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