Clockwatchers

Four women working as temps at a company hold on to each other in a space the permanent staff ignore. When small objects start disappearing from the office, suspicion falls straight on them and their solidarity dissolves. Jill Sprecher directed and wrote it with her sister Karen Sprecher. The cast includes Toni Collette, Parker Posey, Lisa Kudrow and Alanna Ubach. The subject is not work but invisibility. Nobody learns the temps' names, they have no desks, nobody speaks to them, and the camera renders this in long, static shots. The humour is dry and nearly silent. What separates it from office comedy is that the jokes are at the institution's expense, not the worker's. Sprecher drew the script from her own experience as a temp. It played at Sundance, went out in limited release and gathered a cult audience over time. Who it is for: viewers who like quiet, observational films about office life. Who it is not for: anyone wanting pace; the film is deliberately still.