Out of Office is a 2022 Comedy Central exclusive film that focuses on the reality of working from home via video chats. The film begins with Eliza (Milana Vayntrub) as she interviews with a technology company via video chat, and despite having no qualifications, manages to land the job by giving the boss horrible relationship advice. The film features an ensemble cast of well-known comedic actors -- Jason Alexander and Cheri Oteri star as Eliza's parents; Ken Jeong and Jay Pharoah star as members of the new company Eliza begins working with; Leslie Jones stars as Jeong's angry wife; and Jim Rash (Community) and Oscar Nunez (who seemed to channel Michael Scott in his role) are in supporting roles. The primary story of the film revolves around Eliza's entry into the company; the awkward connections between all of the employees; as well as a healthy dose of uncomfortableness surrounding the pasts and social lives of some of the characters.
All the comedy in the film is based on the idea of the silliness and distractions that can come from working at home. While there are certainly some laugh out loud moments (typically tied to the antics of Jeong),there are also a lot of jokes that fall flat and feel overly forced. In addition, the awkward dramatic elements (which mostly feature in the last third of the film) detract from the comedy and bring the mood of the film down quite a bit, leaving a less than satisfactory ending.
Overall, the film feels like an extended pilot for a television series that may be a bit too close to The Office to really be successful. It unfortunately also struggles with its identity a bit -- it begins as a typical comedy but ends more as a dramedy.
Plot summary
A young woman discovers that keeping her job is related to helping her boss maintain his rapidly failing marriage.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
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Mediocre and Unfocused
A very poor movie, but.........................
A very trite story. A comedy with few laughs. Lots of familiar faces in an attempt to attract viewers despite the thin plot. It's difficult to imagine anyone watching this movie and feeling it was time well spent. But while I can't recommend this Comedy Central TV movie, it has the distinction of being a long overdue vehicle for Milana Vayntrub ("Lily" in the AT&T commercials).
Vayntrub carries the film (such as it is) with the lead role and does a fine job, coming off as cute, sweet and interesting. She deserves better than "Out of Office." Hopefully, this will lead to other--better--projects for this talented actress.
Awful. Don't waste your time.
No plot, bad acting, feels like an overlong sitcom episode or a backdoor pilot for a potential series. The characters do nothing to move it along. Ken Jeong is especially grating and nowhere close to funny in this. Jason Alexander is present, but gets too little time and has nothing to do when he's on screen. Milana Vayntrub of "Lily AT&T" fame is somewhat miscast as the lead, would be better as a supporting character. This suffers from lack of story and bad acting all around. Don't bother watching, it's nothing more than another Comedy Central attempt to get a series and capitalize off a few 'names'.