Filming Postbourgeois Suburbia: Office Space and the New American Suburb

gardens. Park-like residential streets. These are the icons of the post–World War II suburban American Dream. By the 1980s, a plurality of Americans lived in the suburbs. Through the 1990s and on into the start of the twenty-first century, Americans continued their suburban migration (Brooks 3 and 5; Martinson 180; Garreau 8). The postwar dream was realized. Or was it? Largely due to their tremendous growth, the suburbs at the turn of the century, no longer matched their icons. Detached homes gave way to condos and even apartments. Beyond the picket fences lay office parks and shopping malls. Private yards and gardens were no longer guarantees. And yet, ‘‘when it comes to suburbia the American imagination is motionless’’ (Brooks 5). Residential exclusivity, family privacy, and isolation from work continue to govern the field of suburban representation. A notable departure from this pattern of representation is the 1999 film Office Space. Office Space has a cultish following among the current generation of college students and thirty-somethings. Written and directed by Mike Judge, the creator of Beavis and Butt-Head and King of the Hill, it tells the story of one man’s desire to ‘‘do nothing.’’ Given this pedigree, it would be easy to dismiss the film as a simple paean to youthful slackerliness; but, underneath that surface, is a unique exploration of the changed and changing suburban landscape—physical, cultural, and demographic. The new suburban configuration on display in Office Space has been given a multitude of names—‘‘technoburbs’’ (Fishman), ‘‘edge cities’’ (Garreau), ‘‘urban villages’’ (Leinberger and Lockwood), ‘‘sprin-