The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)

No directors bend genres the way the Coen brothers do. Western, thriller, film noir - they can fuck it all up and make the genre mannerisms parts of their own goofy world. In The Hudsucker Proxy the brothers inhabit the universe of the screwball comedy through sleek-looking office landscapes of 50's New York. The film might not be a peak of the Coen-ouvre, but it is a charming dissection of careerism: the film shows you where "ambition" brings people. The world of business is not taken seriously at all, which is mostly a good think. Business, here, is all surface and style. Tim Robbins plays Norville, who goes from mouse-like mailroom clerk to sleek-looking exec sitting on the top floor of a glossy skyscraper. The road to the top: the invention of a hoola-hop. Of course, the Coen brothers do everything in their power to project the absurdity of capitalism. Norville is surrounded by plotting background puppetteers and wise-cracking journo ladies (Jennifer Jason Leigh with an ... accent). Hudsucker Proxy is about the little guy from the small town who becomes the boss because the top management tries to make the stock value fall; Norville seems to be the perfect proxy - a useful idiot. The American dream? Some more nightmarish version of it, yes.  Some parts of the film are rather contrived and does not quite take off. But it's well worth watching for its icy description of life at the successful business company. Among the classic office movies (The Apartment and so on) this stands its ground.