In an age where tech startups and social enterprises are all the rage, it’s nice to watch a movie about a kind of industry that few MBA students would be proud to have on their resume, but yet represents one of the millions of invisible, yet decent sized companies that employs lots of people. The movie I’m talking about is Extract directed by Mike Judge who also directed the cult classic, Office Space.
The protagonist in the story, Joel, played by Jason Batemen, started his company from scratch by creating an improved extract that kept its flavor under high temperatures. There is absolutely nothing sexy about his company and his production plant is the kind of place that employs feisty blue class workers and immigrants. The movie painfully recreates all the challenges that these kinds of small companies face from immigrant vs native angst to selling out to worker safety concerns.
I guess I’m partial to this movie because I worked in a similar such company and can relate to much of what happens in the movie. I think this is the same reason why lots of people loved Office Space – it told the story of the life experience that millions of people face everyday but which is rarely portrayed on the big screen.
Lastly, what was also refreshing about this movie is that it didn’t paint Joel as some evil, power-crazed business man like Hollywood loves to do, but as a real person with flaws, but who like many entrepreneurs, has done the largely unappreciated but important job of creating something from nothing.
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