godseyeview This movie is such a classic. So much better than American Movie. This has got to be Chris Smiths pinnacle work. I've seen Collapse and such its so boring. I mean there are millions of doomer porn documentaries or green peace activist or some weird Indian culture quirkiness but this movie hits so close to home with American culture and the plot about the lotto ticket and the ideals of Randy and how the satanic cyberpunk labyrinth eats him at the end. The characters he meets with their roles and hopes and dreams and the ones that have given in. The lotto ticket. I see it everyday. Please release this film on DVD or torrent or anything other than VHS. I no longer have a VHS player and can no longer find one. I wouldn't gladly buy this on DVD.

Mr Blue-4 I enjoyed "American Movie", so I rented Chris Smith's first film, which I thought was a documentary too. In the first minute I saw that it wasn't, but I gave it a go.What a dead end film. Being true-to-life hardly serves you if you're merely going to examine tediousness, esp. tediousness that we're already familar with.I'm sorry, but will it come as a relevation to ANYONE that 1) a lot of jobs suck and 2) most of them are crappy, minimum wage jobs in the service sector??? I knew that before I saw the film. It didn't really provide an examination of that anyway, as while the film struggles to feel "real" (handheld camera, no music, etc.), what's going on hardly plays out as it would in the "real world."Would an employer be so cheerful to Randy when he picks up his check, after Randy quit on him after 3 days when the guy said he expected him to stay 6 months?? Or the day after abandoning his job (and screwing up the machine he was working on), that everyone would be so easy on him??A big problem is our "hero"(?), Randy. This guy is a loser. Not because he's stuck in these jobs, or has a crummy apartment, or looks like one. He's a dope. He doesn't pay attention or even really try at these jobs. He has zero personalty. If I had to hire someone, he wouldn't make it past the interview.I'm looking forward to what Chris Smith does next, but guys, knock off the "this-is-an-important-film" stuff. "American Job" doesn't work.

jpglynn-2 While not as slick (?) or well done as Smith's follow-up "American Movie", this LOW low-budget piece has a charm all its own. While we sympathize with the main character, we don't care if his situation improves. In fact, we hope he continues his aimless sampling of dead-end jobs just so we can tag along.The real treasures are the conversations Randy has with his fellow loser co-workers. Though probably unintentional (because the acting is so bad), the characters' delivery of vacuous conversation has a unique tempo reminiscent of a Coen Brothers script, though not as extreme a caricature.Smith tries too hard to shine light on the banality of everyday tasks with several montages of brushing teeth, driving, walking from place to place, etc. The resulting scenes drag on the already sluggish pace, but the destinations (the encounters with idiotic colleagues and superiors) make it worth the wait.It isn't (as far as I know) out on video, but you might find it on the Independent Film Channel from time to time.

whofartedrecs I, like another reviewer, caught this on IFC, was caught off-guard, and got enmeshed in this, the American Worker's world. Who can't relate to this guy? Who hasn't had one of those crap jobs--and this movie seems to give a nice crap-job cross-sectional--that makes you just want to walk off and forget it was there and that you were ever a part of it? You mean to tell me you've never had to scrub a toilet or fry a basket of fries? You've never endured the realness of the American Experience? That is what this movie is about (for those with questions as to the movie's point). This movie is about what it means to many people to be an American. A counterpoint to bootstrap mythology. Whether you find it ugly or beautiful may attest to the quality of your character. Or at the very least, to the quality of cinema you are used to.When I caught it, I missed the first five-or-so minutes so I didn't know exactly what I was watching. Was it cinema verite' or simply narrative? There were a few clues pointing to the later--as was the cast listing at the end--but some of it was so real it was as if I had been there before. Like I was the guy that left the job before him. Characters this great are born, not written. All of them were great, up and down the chain of command.This was one of those movies that stayed with me well after the first viewing, kinda like a less-severe Gummo or Dancing Outlaw. If that type of cinema is your cup of tea--if you are a fan of Godard, Solondz (whom I thought the lead character was at first), LaButte, Korine, or Wenders--I highly recommend this movie to you. You won't be disappointed. If you are stuck on the old model of cinema, stuck on the boom boom boom and the t'n'a, stuck on the antiquated arc with the feelgood ending, you best run from this movie and instead rent a copy of Forest Gump or Bad Boys II.Good stuff: 9/10