Extract

City Paper Grade: C

by Drew Lazor

JUDGE-MENTAL: Beavis and Butt-Head creator Mike Judge turns his cynical lens on a small business owner (Jason Bateman).

[ City Paper Grade: C ]

Mike Judge is the most consistent critical bastard we've got. From Beavis and Butt-Head to the cult of Idiocracy, the writer/director's best stuff balances en vogue crass joke-cracking with a snide ambivalence toward American subculture. His dissertations on everyday life leave us bemused — that is, until we realize that most of us flounder within the very pockets Judge takes such glee in deconstructing.

With Extract, Judge steers that signature cynicism away from hicks or hippies or straight-up morons, focusing instead on an archetype that no one knew needed a punch in the nuts — the small-business owner. Self-made man Joel (Jason Bateman) owns a successful food extract factory, drives a BMW, has a sweet house and is utterly miserable. This is due in large part to a sexless union with Suzie (Kristen Wiig), his deadpan wife who stays home all day designing coupons on Photoshop. Joel sees a way out of his workaday rut, however, when a generous corporate buyout offer hits his desk — but that's put on hold after a freak accident leaves podunk plant employee Step (Clifton Collins Jr.) one testicle short.

Enter the smoldering Cindy (Mila Kunis), a conniving new hire who takes a seeming shine to Joel — as well as to Step, who's poised to receive millions if he decides to sue the crap out of his employer. While Joel's bartender buddy Dean (a funny Ben Affleck) seems to think that pursuing an affair with Cindy (and also doing lots of drugs) is the cure for Joel's malaise, the bossman's not so sure — but that doesn't stop the pair from concocting a plan (while on mad drugs) for Joel to cheat guilt-free.

Judge seems to want us to empathize with a guy with modest wealth, to show us that it can be lonely at the top, even if that top is relatively close to the bottom. While populating a movie with characters devoid of redeeming qualities is de rigueur for dark comedy, there has got to be something or someone that plugs us in, reminds us that there's still some sweetness left out there in Bittertown, USA (think Bobby in King of the Hill). Extract lacks that, making it less funny than frowning.

(drew.lazor@citypaper.net)