Filming Postbourgeois Suburbia: Office Space and the New American Suburb

The article examines how the depiction of American suburbia in motion pictures illustrates the physical, cultural, and demographic changes in modern suburban society. Particular attention is paid to the portrayal of the suburban landscape in the 1999 film Office Space, written and directed by Mike Judge. The polymorphous landscape of Office Space shows single family homes along side office parks, apartments, restaurants and retail spaces. How the film introduces new sources of angst and oppression to contemporary suburbia is assessed. It is suggested that the film highlights the fact that the suburbs Americans actually live in are fundamentally different from the ones that once dominated the cultural imagination