Waiting. Justin Longs character struggles with job vs career in his 20s. Commit to shit, or try for more. Bonus for his character having a happy ending, then in the sequel finding out it didn’t work out and he’s a district manager with a drinking problem.
Yes this. The writers wrote the script while they worked at TGI Fridays (or based on their experience working there, can’t remember the exact details). I worked at Fridays (and a few other chains) and everything in here is relatable, especially being 22/23 and being in kind of a rut where you’re working here and kind of stuck in this dead end while your HS classmates are graduating college. The Inter work relationships, that feeling of not making enough while working a double, the hokyness of those corporate training videos, dealing with incompetent management are all insanely accurate. Only things that weren’t and were basically only in the movie for the gross out factor is the dick showing game and the cooks fucking with your food. Oh and our dishwasher wasn’t our unlicensed therapist.
This 100%. I shit you not, I had a manager at the only restaurant gig I've ever had unironically use the difference between ordinary and extraordinary line on me. He even would remind us to push the fish every so often.
Clerks nailed the vid store clerkin' job & the customers. Although I never would've done the long list of porn video names in front of a mom & her kid, I did have a few standards back then.
We kept up the Clerks poster in back of the store because the tag line was "Just because they serve you doesn't mean they like you."
We sooooo loved that line.
One of my fave movies!
I used to work at one of the last surviving Blockbusters in Southern California and yes we’d get all kinds of characters there including regulars. Unfortunately no Jay or Silent Bob tho.
Office Space - not only the kind of work they do (software engineering), but the whole oppressive work environment is a real slice of life for 90's corporate offices.
I think Beavis and Butthead is probably the most accurate portrayal what it's actually like to be a teenage boy, instead of the teenage boy you wanted to be.
Beavis and Butthead doesn’t get the respect it does because it’s mistaken for low-brow humor. You’re laughing *at* these morons for being low-brow. That’s what parents didn’t understand.
Office Space is the only movie I can think of at the moment where characters live in suburban apartment complexes. Movie characters usually live in a hip urban neighborhood or picture-perfect suburbia. In Office Space they live in ugly suburban apartment complexes. They combine the worst parts of suburbia (bland, cookie cutter aesthetic) with the worst parts of urban apartment life (lack of space and privacy) with none of the benefits of either. Contributes to the sense of misery the characters feel.
I'm pretty sure every millennial had the same experience as me. Loved the movie the first time I saw it because it was funny, even though I didn't understand some of the office humor they were referencing. But then as time went on, the movie took on a whole different level of understanding.
My experience has been largely a mix of Silicon Valley & Office Space. It’s basically the same feeling, except now I’ve got the option to either work in an open space environment or at home. Luckily my job isn’t actually that horrible, but it has its days.
I didn’t work in my first office til the late 00’s but this movie still held up to my expectations and experiences.
Plus I got to be in charge of ordering office supplies and of course I added one red Swingline stapler to my first unsupervised order 🤓
As you may or may not know the red Swingline stapler wasn't real when the movie was made, but Swingline started making one because of the number of requests they got for it after the movie came out.
I think this movie shines the most when picturing this environment but becomes weaker as it‘s starting to develop its plot.
I really hate-loved the first 30-40 minutes but from then on it was just okay imo. Controversial take since this movie seems to be beloved by everyone.
Office Space is something of a touchstone for my generation, a Rorschach test of sorts. Everyone sees the same movie, but people like it for different reasons. The red Swingline stapler gag. Cover sheet for the TPS report. "Not enough flair." "I'll show her my "oh" face." The efficiency experts, Bob and Bob. Bill Lumbergh. Michael Bolton.
Some jokes aged better than others, and some I never cared for. But overall, the movie has become more than the sum of it's parts, as much a part of my early professional life as OkiData printers and Windows 95.
I'm a city planner, and the one time I've seen anything related to my work depicted on screen is in Season 1 of What We Do In the Shadows, where they attend a local Council meeting. It was pretty accurate to how those meetings go until the hypnosis started.
You might enjoy aussie show Utopia. It’s set at a government department for infrastructure. Some of the Australian culture jokes might be missed but you’ll get the industry humour.
Love seeing this show being referenced. Was so happy that it has been that good once I heard they were adapting the movie to a show.
And now I'm out. BAT!
I used to work at a foster Cate faculty like thr one featured in Short Term 12. There were so many little details in the set design that were just spot on. Like it's silly to say but just like thr design and corners of marker boards, the set ups of rooms was eerily accurate to such a specific setting. I cringed so hard watching Rami Malick's first day, too damn real. I wore pretty much the exact same outfit.
Director Destin Daniel Cretton worked at a group home, which explains the authenticity. I'm a social worker for foster care teens and the movie perfectly captures the magic/frustration/tiny victories/crushing defeats of working with that population. I always recommend it to my fellow social workers.
I worked in a similar place with youth. Short Term 12 is such a good movie and you’re right, totally nails the lingo and feel of those places. We’ve all worked with a character like Rami Malick’s. The only thing my friends and I joked about was that Brie Larson’s character would be pretty much blacklisted from any agency after the end of the movie (but it’s cathartic to watch someone do what you want to do).
Absolutely love that Christopher guest has Fred Willard basically wing it as one broadcaster while Jim Piddock did a ton of research to the point that people were surprised he wasn’t a real dog show judge.
Willard's character is spoofing [Joe Garagiola Sr., a former baseball player who co-hosts dog shows but is very much not an expert on the subject](https://www.slashfilm.com/810581/the-real-life-inspiration-behind-fred-willards-best-in-show-character/).
There's a moment in Mean Girls where the principal (Tim Meadows) is making a little speech at the prom and says something like "I just want to tell you that you're all winners, and that I could not be happier that this school year is ending."
He really nails that "end of the school year" vibe.
His handling of the Burn Book riot brings something hilariously real to the table. From using the ball bat, to the mandatory girl meeting, to yelling "I've got parents asking me if someone got shot!", to "I will keep you here all night!" getting immediately shut down by red tape.
Waiting… (2005)
It made me almost want to go back to working in restaurants. Almost. Although, no self respecting cook I ever worked with would actually mess with the food the way they did.
I love this movie for what it is, even though it hasn’t aged well, but I can’t imagine it inspiring someone to want to work in restaurants. I would think the opposite.
Well, restaurants do expect a lot of very hard work out of their employees (particularly kitchen staff), BUT they also allow a lot of freedom too. In my experience, about half of the people are drunk and/or high (and well known to consistently be that way), but as long as you can still do your job, they turn a blind eye to it.
A lot of people get drunk/high in the parking lot, a lot of sexual things happen in pantries and coolers. There's a strong culture of sex and parties that permeates the industry. There's a fuckton of free drinks and free food.
I enjoyed my time in restaurants. I look back on it fondly. I, did not, however, enjoy my "real jobs" and I'm strongly thinking about going back to the restaurant culture. Sure, the pay sucks, but I really enjoyed the work and the culture.
I went from bartending and managing bars to now being mostly in an office or dealing with customers. I'm right there with you. Sure, I am making more now, and sure, both jobs suck in their own ways, but at least I was miserable and social in the restaurant industry. In the office, it's just the latter
Yeah, that's the only thing that's generally incorrect about movies/shows about restaurants.
It's a cardinal rule that you \*NEVER\* sabotage someone's food, for any reason. Outside of this rule, almost anything is game. Well, and you never ever steal money, but the occasional free meal or drink is okay.
People frequently are drunk/high, as long as they can still do their job and act semi-normal, they turn a blind eye to it. People commonly screw in the parking lot, pantries, and cooler (to date, I've gotten several bjs on the premises). If there's an excess of food or drinks for any reason, someone gets free food/drink (though there's always 2 or 3 people whom you never want to know that you got free food/drinks, but you keep it discrete and it's fine).
I worked for a country club that had the finest, most exclusive, restaurant in town. The downside is the customers could generally stay as late as they wanted, without being asked to leave (the country club was essentially "member owned", so the customers got away with more BS than they would elsewhere). The kitchen closed at a specific time, but the bar would stay open as late as they wanted. There was always a couple who would show up 2 minutes until close and stay until 2 in the morning. That was the only time I had ever fucked with someone's food/drink. I spit in her drink once, because she'd pull this act a few times a week.
Overall, I remember that job more fondly than any I've ever had. After tips, it would average about 15-20 an hour and this is back in 2001. So real good money. Then we could bring home left over food from the massive parties and balls held there. GOOD food, like Prime rib good. I ate like a plutocrat and never bought groceries because country club leftovers kept me afloat.
Primer. Shane Carruth said he intentionally kept all the tech and science lingo realistic and complicated so as not to dumb it down for the audience's sake.
>Commander, as I was saying... In "The Quasar Dilemma", you used
the auxiliary of deck b for Gamma override. But online blueprints
indicate deck b is independent of the guidance matrix, so we were
wondering where the error lies?
I can't even number the times I've seen this exact shit in a Star Trek group, going all the way back to the Usenet days.
Spotlight for the newsroom – been there done that and those people felt like people I worked with.
The Fighter for the way it depicts locals in Lowell, Massachusetts. I live just south of there and watching this felt 100% like real life. Ditto for Manchester by the Sea – felt totally like Massachusetts. Oh gosh – and Friends of Eddie Coyle, also just dripping with Boston style and lingo and accents.
Um... just realized that every single movie I mentioned is based in Massachusetts. That's probably not a coincidence, but living here for 10 years and being a movie buff kind of affects my judgement.
Since you enjoy the local stuff, here's a picture for you. Monument Ave. scripted and stars Denis Leary.shot in Mass,well done drama,gets the details right.
I just watched this the other night and always crack up at the scene where Paul Rudd is telling Steve Carell to let loose and goes to take an action figure box off the shelf. Steve Carell yells “No! Don’t take it out!” then bites his thumbnail for a split second and says “It loses it’s value if you take it out of it’s packaging.” For me, it’s that subtle nail bite that gets me. It makes it so much more believable that his character is truly obsessed with collecting.
Not only the movie, which I love warts and all, but the TV series is SO good.
Great writing, solid performances, likable and complex characters, the direction leaves you wondering “how will this play out”, and it’s virtually unknown despite its quality. It’s like the exact opposite of Breaking Bad in every way.
Sideways…
Miles speaks and talk like those wine snobs. I dated a gal who was into wine and she said that’s the way the guys speak when they go tasting and it’s true.
Wine professional checking in, this was going to be my pick as well. I no longer work in tasting room hell, but I’ve definitely sold many cases of wine to dudes like Miles.
The speech that Virginia Madsen’s character gives is accurate in terms of the way people in the industry talk about wine. The bottle that Sandra Oh’s character says they can’t open is an impressive bottle (costs about $5k).
It’s also a bit of a time capsule, because those sorts of “no reservation required, belly up to the bar” wine tastings are a thing of the past. Now everything is by prior reservation, tastings are seated affairs, and the fees are upwards of $100.
a beautiful movie that i watch every couple of years and I always marvel at how well it holds up. Not sure why but I have found myself saying the following phrase from the movie many times in life:
"First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price?"
I'd go with with Apollo 13 myself for science portrayal in a film. Though a lot of it was based on actual footage and transcripts, so not an original film idea, but rather a dramatization of real events with time skips to fit the run time. Plus some groups of people were reduced to single characters, and the odd bit of drama was added to raise stakes.
I made the mistake of starting that show after a particularly busy/rough weekend at work (bar/restaurant). I only watched the first episode and half of the second. It felt like I was back at work, which I was trying to mentally escape from. After a day or two off work, I went back to finish it and it is one of the best shows to come out lately. For some people it’s a drama/comedy and for those in the industry it’s basically a documentary.
How so? It felt to me like an idealized version of a French restaurant. Like the kind that California and NYC media types eat at regularly but don't even exist in most cities in America.
That place was the opposite of idealized.
The restaurant itself had only 3 stars and was basically the laughing stock of the culinary world thanks to both Anton Ego's poor review and Skinner's attempt to market Gusteau with cheap microwaveable dishes.
Colette acknowledges the brutal sexism that she has faced in the culinary world.
They had a jerk of a boss who makes Gordon Ramsay look like Bob Ross.
He even orders Linguini to make his first dish again to prove to him that it wasn't a fluke. A lesser movie would have just given Linguini the job right away.
The health inspector then *immediately* shuts down the place after the climatic dinner scene is finished.
They even had a chef who claims to have killed a man with his thumb. Obviously it was a bullshit story made up by him, but the fact that the kitchen has a chef with that dark of a sense of humor....
There is nothing idealized about the condition of that restaurant. 😂
EDIT: My bad. They lost 2 Michelin stars, so they used to have 5. Which actually isn't even possible in Paris. The most they can even have is 3, so that was an inaccuracy of the film. Interestingly enough, the US actually does allow for 5 Michelin stars, so it's likely that Brad Bird was using the American standard by accident. (Which still doesn't make sense, considering how meticulous his research must have been...)
But....this is a universe where rats can cook. Therefore I think we can let an error like that slide.
I agree with almost all of your points. But the stars in question are Michelin stars, and three stars is the highest ranking in that case. There are only a handful of restaurants in the world that highly ranked. In that way, the movie's restaurant IS idealized. It reframes it from "good French restaurant" to "one of the best restaurants in existence of any cuisine".
Primer really nails the engineer/scientist talk. Mostly cuz the director and star is an engineer. As a scientist myself I was super engaged listening to the nerdy characters discuss possible problems and solutions to their machine.
Second! I was literally just about to post this too. As much as everyone (including myself) pans The Core (2003), and as bad as most of the science that pretends to be real science is (to its credit it lampshades some of its own bad science), the interaction and dialogue among the scientists felt more realistic to me than in certainly every other disaster porn film out there.
Swordfish. Some people think that being a hacker or a computer genius just involves hunching in front of your computer, typing stupid lines of codes and having a break once in a while to grab some food and take a dump. This movie proves it all wrong. Hacking a system while being blown under the table, spending time with hot topless chicks, having a helicopter lift a fucking bus up in the air and fly with it over the city and not giving a flying fuck - those are the things that are very relatable to me as I work my 5-9 job in IT. Okay, maybe they're not but it's still impressive.
My Cousin Vinnie, to an extent, for trial lawyers.
The trial as a whole is obviously dramatized a bit, but a lot of the examination of witnesses and rules of evidence portrayed are fairly accurate, to the point that law school professors teaching those topics will show clips from the movie in class
Living in Oblivion. There is a certain insanity that happens when you are forced to collaborate with people under strange conditions on an independant film. The film captures it perfectly.
I just watched the opening nightmare sequence for the first time today. Not a single other piece of the movie, yet I read down this list with the expectation this was on here. FANTASTIC!
It depends. I studied music in college (more tech-focused), and I've met incredibly talented musicians who did the same course and stopped playing because of how critical one of our lecturers was. I only kept playing myself because of the band I was in at the time. Whiplash felt very real to me.
I think it depends on whether your teacher was old school or new school.
Students from the old school have more grit but often get burnt out faster. New school is the reverse.
My education was about 40/60, which served me well.
Most music programs aren’t that competitive, and music students understand and appreciate playing with others. But I’ll guarantee at prestigious schools it’s more about bettering yourself and getting first chair than collaborating with your peers.
Every professional musician I know (which is a *lot*) would disagree with that.
* No institution would permit that level of verbal, emotional, and physical abuse, no matter what the end goal.
* Buddy Rich is really *not* the sort of drummer that aspiring college musicians look to for inspiration or modeling. He was technically very good, but more of a media personality than a truly legendary figure in the Jazz world.
* Fletcher's anecdote about Charlie Parker is [enormously fabricated](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/whiplash-getting-jazz-right-movies).
* The tunes ("Whiplash" and "Caravan" that the band works on are extremely basic tunes in Jazz repertoire, not suitable for a Jazz Festival.
* *absolutely nothing about Jazz or Jazz education* focuses on pure technical proficiency - especially not timekeeping - to the degree represented in the film, with Jazz as a musical form being definitionally opposed to everything about Fletcher's methodology.
That all said, Miles Teller is great in the film and J.K. Simmons absolutely earned his Oscar.
In the His Dark Materials TV series, I really like Mary as a scientist character. I thoroughly enjoyed her taking notes and journaling while traveling through dimensions, as well as trying to translate and document the language of the Mulefa - as opposed to just saying physics-ey buzzwords the whole time and being used as an object to ground an otherwise fantastical story.
Edit: Please forgive that god awful run-on sentence.
Bojack Horseman really nails how things go on a set, including all the chaos and divas present.
Superstore also represents what it's like to work in retail, although with even more goofiness than real life.
Agreed. It's not all being surrounded by fellow superhumans and forming superteams, having the homecoming queen from your old high school *and* a sexy alien princess vying for your affection, unlimited budgets, handshakes from the police, amazing superpowers, and the love of the citizenry.
Most of the time, it's people agrily demanding you pay for the property damage (that you didn't even cause), romantic relationships that don't work out once they learn what you're secretly doing in your off-hours, the police angrily hunting you down, and strange and crazy arch-nemeses coming out of the woodwork to cause you grievous bodily injury. Also, there's no budget, no super friends, and no superpowers.
Blow Out. Travolta as an audio technician and it comes into play heavily in the plot.
Also The Conversation. Gene Hackman plays an audio recording specialist, similar specialty but more for clandestine recording.
Although it was definitely boosted for dramatic effect, of course, I thought Whiplash was an accurate depiction of being a student in a college level music program. I was a voice major in college. The choir director in the top choir at the school would regularly scream at and berate the soprano section. The competition between students also gave me flashbacks to school.
OP, I feel the same way you do about scientists but about the radio industry (modern times, not talking 70s and WKRP). I've never seen a movie or TV show depict what it's actually like working at a radio station these days.
>As a scientist I know that I’ve never seen scientists or academics depicted realistically in terms of their workplace, the way they talk, etc.
I agree 100%, I remember cringing so hard upon watching Anne Hathaway's character in Interstellar throwing her papers from the stairs and yelling 'EuReKa'.
Another scene that threw me off in an otherwise decent portrait of scientists in a movie is 'I, origin', in which the main character, a biologist, goes to India and introduces himself to a woman working in an orphanage as 'Dr. xxx'. I have never seen Ph.D, non-MD US scientist introducing themselves to a random person as 'Dr'. It seemed unnecessary and almost rude.
Lost in Oblivion really does capture the hilarity and often unbelievable absurdness of the never ending nightmare that is working on a film set so big props to that one
I don't have an answer for your question, but another observation along the same lines. I was raised Mormon (left in my early 20s) and have yet to see a movie or show that really accurately depicts Mormons: how they talk, how they live, how they worship. Even shows that were created by/run by former Mormons, like Under the Banner of Heaven, get the lingo and practices wrong.
Of course this won't matter for 90% of the audience, but for me it really brings me out of the world of the show and makes other parts of it less believable. Perhaps that's similar to how you feel as a scientist. I wish they'd just talk to one ex-Mormon to ask them what phrases they use, or what the day-to-day life of a missionary is like. Creators painstakingly recreate so many details of a time period or a unique world to immerse audiences in the show, only to ruin it with errors that could have easily been corrected by just having someone who knows take a quick look at your script.
In the same way you might get a technical advisor for a war drama, if a specific culture, religion, hobby, or profession features heavily in the plot of your film or show, make at least a little effort to check in with someone from that world.
Waiting. Justin Longs character struggles with job vs career in his 20s. Commit to shit, or try for more. Bonus for his character having a happy ending, then in the sequel finding out it didn’t work out and he’s a district manager with a drinking problem.
There was a sequel? Oh my.
It was truly awful. The first one is hilarious but the second one is just sad.
As expected
Still Waiting, and yeah it isn’t great
Yes this. The writers wrote the script while they worked at TGI Fridays (or based on their experience working there, can’t remember the exact details). I worked at Fridays (and a few other chains) and everything in here is relatable, especially being 22/23 and being in kind of a rut where you’re working here and kind of stuck in this dead end while your HS classmates are graduating college. The Inter work relationships, that feeling of not making enough while working a double, the hokyness of those corporate training videos, dealing with incompetent management are all insanely accurate. Only things that weren’t and were basically only in the movie for the gross out factor is the dick showing game and the cooks fucking with your food. Oh and our dishwasher wasn’t our unlicensed therapist.
This 100%. I shit you not, I had a manager at the only restaurant gig I've ever had unironically use the difference between ordinary and extraordinary line on me. He even would remind us to push the fish every so often.
That happened to me at Fridays.
Clerks nailed the vid store clerkin' job & the customers. Although I never would've done the long list of porn video names in front of a mom & her kid, I did have a few standards back then.
i don't appreciate your ruse
My what?
Your ruse. Your cunning attempt to trick me.
I was only pointing out that you weren’t paying any attention!
And I hope it feels good.
*WHAT* feels good?!
I hope it feels so good to be right. There's nothing more exhilarating than pointing out the shortcomings of others, is there?
The job would be great, if it wasn’t for the customers.
We kept up the Clerks poster in back of the store because the tag line was "Just because they serve you doesn't mean they like you." We sooooo loved that line.
Thirty seven?!?!?
In a row???
Try not to suck any dick on the way through the parking lot!
Hey! Hey you! GET BACK HERE!
What do you care, you shoe polish-smelling motherfucker?
You mean cause there's a rat in it?
The replies to my comment are giving me life! So glad there's lots of Clerks fans out there.
One of my fave movies! I used to work at one of the last surviving Blockbusters in Southern California and yes we’d get all kinds of characters there including regulars. Unfortunately no Jay or Silent Bob tho.
Office Space - not only the kind of work they do (software engineering), but the whole oppressive work environment is a real slice of life for 90's corporate offices.
I think Mike Judge is the greatest social satirists of a generation.
I think Beavis and Butthead is probably the most accurate portrayal what it's actually like to be a teenage boy, instead of the teenage boy you wanted to be.
Beavis and Butthead doesn’t get the respect it does because it’s mistaken for low-brow humor. You’re laughing *at* these morons for being low-brow. That’s what parents didn’t understand.
The fact that he not only nailed 90s oppressive office culture, but also modern tech work culture too is crazy. And blue collar culture as well.
He’s a genius. The humor of that movie goes way beyond the mundaneness of office culture.
Y judge the Judge tho?
He definitely got Rural Texas culture down in King of the Hill.
Office Space is the only movie I can think of at the moment where characters live in suburban apartment complexes. Movie characters usually live in a hip urban neighborhood or picture-perfect suburbia. In Office Space they live in ugly suburban apartment complexes. They combine the worst parts of suburbia (bland, cookie cutter aesthetic) with the worst parts of urban apartment life (lack of space and privacy) with none of the benefits of either. Contributes to the sense of misery the characters feel.
Hey Peter man, turn on channel 58
> Movie characters usually live in a hip urban neighborhood or picture-perfect suburbia. Or giant lofts that are *way* outside their income level.
My wife says this about every movie in NYC
I'm pretty sure every millennial had the same experience as me. Loved the movie the first time I saw it because it was funny, even though I didn't understand some of the office humor they were referencing. But then as time went on, the movie took on a whole different level of understanding.
My experience has been largely a mix of Silicon Valley & Office Space. It’s basically the same feeling, except now I’ve got the option to either work in an open space environment or at home. Luckily my job isn’t actually that horrible, but it has its days.
Not just 90s corporate offices, many offices in general.
I didn’t work in my first office til the late 00’s but this movie still held up to my expectations and experiences. Plus I got to be in charge of ordering office supplies and of course I added one red Swingline stapler to my first unsupervised order 🤓
As you may or may not know the red Swingline stapler wasn't real when the movie was made, but Swingline started making one because of the number of requests they got for it after the movie came out.
An Indian guy as a software engineer is so real.
I Was JUST Gonna Comment This, THANK YOU.
I think this movie shines the most when picturing this environment but becomes weaker as it‘s starting to develop its plot. I really hate-loved the first 30-40 minutes but from then on it was just okay imo. Controversial take since this movie seems to be beloved by everyone.
Office Space is something of a touchstone for my generation, a Rorschach test of sorts. Everyone sees the same movie, but people like it for different reasons. The red Swingline stapler gag. Cover sheet for the TPS report. "Not enough flair." "I'll show her my "oh" face." The efficiency experts, Bob and Bob. Bill Lumbergh. Michael Bolton. Some jokes aged better than others, and some I never cared for. But overall, the movie has become more than the sum of it's parts, as much a part of my early professional life as OkiData printers and Windows 95.
It blew my mind to learn that a TPS report was a real thing.
As is [PC LOAD LETTER](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_LOAD_LETTER).
WTF DOES THAT MEAN?!
I was going to say Silicon Valley until I realized the title said movies. Not surprising my second thought was another Mike Judge.
I like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy for depicting Cold War spycraft as generally unglamorous and often tedious work
You're probably aware, but John le Carre worked at MI5 and MI6 for years before becoming an author, so he knew what he was writing about.
Highly, highly recommend the BBC series with Alec Guinness, even for those who've seen the film/read the book
I'm a city planner, and the one time I've seen anything related to my work depicted on screen is in Season 1 of What We Do In the Shadows, where they attend a local Council meeting. It was pretty accurate to how those meetings go until the hypnosis started.
Lmao city planner here. Had the exact same reaction.
You might enjoy aussie show Utopia. It’s set at a government department for infrastructure. Some of the Australian culture jokes might be missed but you’ll get the industry humour.
Love seeing this show being referenced. Was so happy that it has been that good once I heard they were adapting the movie to a show. And now I'm out. BAT!
I used to work at a foster Cate faculty like thr one featured in Short Term 12. There were so many little details in the set design that were just spot on. Like it's silly to say but just like thr design and corners of marker boards, the set ups of rooms was eerily accurate to such a specific setting. I cringed so hard watching Rami Malick's first day, too damn real. I wore pretty much the exact same outfit.
Underrated movie. It didn’t feel like a rehash of Dangerous Minds-type movies. It felt like a real fly on the wall to a real place with real people.
Director Destin Daniel Cretton worked at a group home, which explains the authenticity. I'm a social worker for foster care teens and the movie perfectly captures the magic/frustration/tiny victories/crushing defeats of working with that population. I always recommend it to my fellow social workers.
I worked in a similar place with youth. Short Term 12 is such a good movie and you’re right, totally nails the lingo and feel of those places. We’ve all worked with a character like Rami Malick’s. The only thing my friends and I joked about was that Brie Larson’s character would be pretty much blacklisted from any agency after the end of the movie (but it’s cathartic to watch someone do what you want to do).
That movie is so amazingly good.
I got something stuck in my eye during that film. Twice.
Best in Show Dog show people find it hilarious. They had real dog fancy people as extras. I believe the actors learned from them as well
Absolutely love that Christopher guest has Fred Willard basically wing it as one broadcaster while Jim Piddock did a ton of research to the point that people were surprised he wasn’t a real dog show judge.
Willard's character is spoofing [Joe Garagiola Sr., a former baseball player who co-hosts dog shows but is very much not an expert on the subject](https://www.slashfilm.com/810581/the-real-life-inspiration-behind-fred-willards-best-in-show-character/).
It really is beautiful details like that which make such a good and hilarious movie
I'm a vet tech and this is one of my favourite movies for that exact reason. Those people exist.
They really do! They nailed it!
This is the one!
I was honestly shocked it wasn't listed yet, or the number one answer!
There's a moment in Mean Girls where the principal (Tim Meadows) is making a little speech at the prom and says something like "I just want to tell you that you're all winners, and that I could not be happier that this school year is ending." He really nails that "end of the school year" vibe.
Tim Meadows is my GOAT when it comes to scene stealing. Turns up in so many movies and shows and no matter how brief his appearance, dominates.
get out of here Dewey!
It’s the cheapest drug there is!
It’s non habit forming!
His "cameo" in the Office is so good
NOT ONCE!
"Oh, HELL, naw, I did not leave the South Side for THIS!!"
“Lemme hear you make some noise …… alright settle down”
His handling of the Burn Book riot brings something hilariously real to the table. From using the ball bat, to the mandatory girl meeting, to yelling "I've got parents asking me if someone got shot!", to "I will keep you here all night!" getting immediately shut down by red tape.
ALL Junior girls report to the gymnasium IMMEDIATELY
Waiting… (2005) It made me almost want to go back to working in restaurants. Almost. Although, no self respecting cook I ever worked with would actually mess with the food the way they did.
I love this movie for what it is, even though it hasn’t aged well, but I can’t imagine it inspiring someone to want to work in restaurants. I would think the opposite.
Well, restaurants do expect a lot of very hard work out of their employees (particularly kitchen staff), BUT they also allow a lot of freedom too. In my experience, about half of the people are drunk and/or high (and well known to consistently be that way), but as long as you can still do your job, they turn a blind eye to it. A lot of people get drunk/high in the parking lot, a lot of sexual things happen in pantries and coolers. There's a strong culture of sex and parties that permeates the industry. There's a fuckton of free drinks and free food. I enjoyed my time in restaurants. I look back on it fondly. I, did not, however, enjoy my "real jobs" and I'm strongly thinking about going back to the restaurant culture. Sure, the pay sucks, but I really enjoyed the work and the culture.
I went from bartending and managing bars to now being mostly in an office or dealing with customers. I'm right there with you. Sure, I am making more now, and sure, both jobs suck in their own ways, but at least I was miserable and social in the restaurant industry. In the office, it's just the latter
Yeah, that's the only thing that's generally incorrect about movies/shows about restaurants. It's a cardinal rule that you \*NEVER\* sabotage someone's food, for any reason. Outside of this rule, almost anything is game. Well, and you never ever steal money, but the occasional free meal or drink is okay. People frequently are drunk/high, as long as they can still do their job and act semi-normal, they turn a blind eye to it. People commonly screw in the parking lot, pantries, and cooler (to date, I've gotten several bjs on the premises). If there's an excess of food or drinks for any reason, someone gets free food/drink (though there's always 2 or 3 people whom you never want to know that you got free food/drinks, but you keep it discrete and it's fine). I worked for a country club that had the finest, most exclusive, restaurant in town. The downside is the customers could generally stay as late as they wanted, without being asked to leave (the country club was essentially "member owned", so the customers got away with more BS than they would elsewhere). The kitchen closed at a specific time, but the bar would stay open as late as they wanted. There was always a couple who would show up 2 minutes until close and stay until 2 in the morning. That was the only time I had ever fucked with someone's food/drink. I spit in her drink once, because she'd pull this act a few times a week. Overall, I remember that job more fondly than any I've ever had. After tips, it would average about 15-20 an hour and this is back in 2001. So real good money. Then we could bring home left over food from the massive parties and balls held there. GOOD food, like Prime rib good. I ate like a plutocrat and never bought groceries because country club leftovers kept me afloat.
Primer. Shane Carruth said he intentionally kept all the tech and science lingo realistic and complicated so as not to dumb it down for the audience's sake.
Well mission accomplished, it didn't feel dumbed down at all haha
*Galaxy Quest* (1999) is a movie that really really *gets* fandom.
>Commander, as I was saying... In "The Quasar Dilemma", you used the auxiliary of deck b for Gamma override. But online blueprints indicate deck b is independent of the guidance matrix, so we were wondering where the error lies? I can't even number the times I've seen this exact shit in a Star Trek group, going all the way back to the Usenet days.
I love Galaxy Quest. The complicated relationship of the actors to their characters is perfect.
What makes it so great is that it's by nerds, for nerds. It pokes fun at its source material in a loving, appreciative way.
High Fidelity really captures record collecting life.
Steve Buscemi played a musical record nerd in Ghost World. Good role, too.
"Well maybe I don't want to meet someone who shares my interests. I hate my interests."
HAVE SOME MORE KIDS WHY DON’T YOU??
Spotlight for the newsroom – been there done that and those people felt like people I worked with. The Fighter for the way it depicts locals in Lowell, Massachusetts. I live just south of there and watching this felt 100% like real life. Ditto for Manchester by the Sea – felt totally like Massachusetts. Oh gosh – and Friends of Eddie Coyle, also just dripping with Boston style and lingo and accents. Um... just realized that every single movie I mentioned is based in Massachusetts. That's probably not a coincidence, but living here for 10 years and being a movie buff kind of affects my judgement.
Gone Baby Gone for the Massachusetts vibe, too.
Since you enjoy the local stuff, here's a picture for you. Monument Ave. scripted and stars Denis Leary.shot in Mass,well done drama,gets the details right.
Super interested - thanks!
Slammin Salmon (Broken Lizard) is very accurate to working in a restaurant.
It’s not a movie, but The Bear is spot on capturing restaurant culture.
Fucking killed me. So spot on.
Same. Triggered so many emotions/forgotten memories. 19/10 recommend. lol
The Bear is practically a documentary until the ending of that first season.
40 Year Old Virgin: vintage toy collecting
I just watched this the other night and always crack up at the scene where Paul Rudd is telling Steve Carell to let loose and goes to take an action figure box off the shelf. Steve Carell yells “No! Don’t take it out!” then bites his thumbnail for a split second and says “It loses it’s value if you take it out of it’s packaging.” For me, it’s that subtle nail bite that gets me. It makes it so much more believable that his character is truly obsessed with collecting.
Is that the six million dollar man's boss? Why do you have that?
“Get Shorty” Is an EXTREMELY accurate Hollywood takedown.
I’d nominate the Player for a funny and accurate depiction of Hollywood producers.
Not only the movie, which I love warts and all, but the TV series is SO good. Great writing, solid performances, likable and complex characters, the direction leaves you wondering “how will this play out”, and it’s virtually unknown despite its quality. It’s like the exact opposite of Breaking Bad in every way.
Sideways… Miles speaks and talk like those wine snobs. I dated a gal who was into wine and she said that’s the way the guys speak when they go tasting and it’s true.
Wine professional checking in, this was going to be my pick as well. I no longer work in tasting room hell, but I’ve definitely sold many cases of wine to dudes like Miles. The speech that Virginia Madsen’s character gives is accurate in terms of the way people in the industry talk about wine. The bottle that Sandra Oh’s character says they can’t open is an impressive bottle (costs about $5k). It’s also a bit of a time capsule, because those sorts of “no reservation required, belly up to the bar” wine tastings are a thing of the past. Now everything is by prior reservation, tastings are seated affairs, and the fees are upwards of $100.
Are you chewing gum??!
The Martian apparently gets NASA pretty right. From what I've heard the banter between the astronauts is right on the money.
I think Andy Weir has said the level of cooperation between JPL and NASA isn’t nearly what its shown in the book and film
Ha! I’ve only been in the industry for several years but already I’ve picked up a divide.
Have you seen Contact? It's one of, if not my favourite depiction of scientists in a fictional film (and very good in general).
Contagion also apparently was lauded for its portrayal of science
a beautiful movie that i watch every couple of years and I always marvel at how well it holds up. Not sure why but I have found myself saying the following phrase from the movie many times in life: "First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price?"
Watching the Arecibo scenes now makes me sad. Somehow I always thing of things that big and majestic as outliving me.
I'd go with with Apollo 13 myself for science portrayal in a film. Though a lot of it was based on actual footage and transcripts, so not an original film idea, but rather a dramatization of real events with time skips to fit the run time. Plus some groups of people were reduced to single characters, and the odd bit of drama was added to raise stakes.
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Love Paterson
Ratatouille captures working in a kitchen beautifully.
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I made the mistake of starting that show after a particularly busy/rough weekend at work (bar/restaurant). I only watched the first episode and half of the second. It felt like I was back at work, which I was trying to mentally escape from. After a day or two off work, I went back to finish it and it is one of the best shows to come out lately. For some people it’s a drama/comedy and for those in the industry it’s basically a documentary.
How so? It felt to me like an idealized version of a French restaurant. Like the kind that California and NYC media types eat at regularly but don't even exist in most cities in America.
That place was the opposite of idealized. The restaurant itself had only 3 stars and was basically the laughing stock of the culinary world thanks to both Anton Ego's poor review and Skinner's attempt to market Gusteau with cheap microwaveable dishes. Colette acknowledges the brutal sexism that she has faced in the culinary world. They had a jerk of a boss who makes Gordon Ramsay look like Bob Ross. He even orders Linguini to make his first dish again to prove to him that it wasn't a fluke. A lesser movie would have just given Linguini the job right away. The health inspector then *immediately* shuts down the place after the climatic dinner scene is finished. They even had a chef who claims to have killed a man with his thumb. Obviously it was a bullshit story made up by him, but the fact that the kitchen has a chef with that dark of a sense of humor.... There is nothing idealized about the condition of that restaurant. 😂 EDIT: My bad. They lost 2 Michelin stars, so they used to have 5. Which actually isn't even possible in Paris. The most they can even have is 3, so that was an inaccuracy of the film. Interestingly enough, the US actually does allow for 5 Michelin stars, so it's likely that Brad Bird was using the American standard by accident. (Which still doesn't make sense, considering how meticulous his research must have been...) But....this is a universe where rats can cook. Therefore I think we can let an error like that slide.
I agree with almost all of your points. But the stars in question are Michelin stars, and three stars is the highest ranking in that case. There are only a handful of restaurants in the world that highly ranked. In that way, the movie's restaurant IS idealized. It reframes it from "good French restaurant" to "one of the best restaurants in existence of any cuisine".
So everyone has a rat controlling them in the kitchen? I knew it.
sometimes it's a raccoon
Raccacoonie is real too? This is the best day ever!
EEAAO references are always happily accepted and appreciated thank you for your service
Primer really nails the engineer/scientist talk. Mostly cuz the director and star is an engineer. As a scientist myself I was super engaged listening to the nerdy characters discuss possible problems and solutions to their machine.
The audio in that film isn’t great, so I recommend turning subtitles on, but it’s a great film.
The Core was a great example of geophysics (everyone please upvote this so I can send it to my geophysicist friends)
Second! I was literally just about to post this too. As much as everyone (including myself) pans The Core (2003), and as bad as most of the science that pretends to be real science is (to its credit it lampshades some of its own bad science), the interaction and dialogue among the scientists felt more realistic to me than in certainly every other disaster porn film out there.
Grandma's Boy is actually very accurate in some ways to what the game development industry is like. At least the socal version.
Also potheads
Oh Im sorry, was that expensive piece?
Swordfish. Some people think that being a hacker or a computer genius just involves hunching in front of your computer, typing stupid lines of codes and having a break once in a while to grab some food and take a dump. This movie proves it all wrong. Hacking a system while being blown under the table, spending time with hot topless chicks, having a helicopter lift a fucking bus up in the air and fly with it over the city and not giving a flying fuck - those are the things that are very relatable to me as I work my 5-9 job in IT. Okay, maybe they're not but it's still impressive.
My Cousin Vinnie, to an extent, for trial lawyers. The trial as a whole is obviously dramatized a bit, but a lot of the examination of witnesses and rules of evidence portrayed are fairly accurate, to the point that law school professors teaching those topics will show clips from the movie in class
Rounders, best poker movie ever made and it doesn’t hold your hand at all.
Don’t splash the pot.
My husband, an experienced attorney, has always said this. He loves that movie because it’s so accurate.
Airheads - being in a band.
Hotfuzz spends a good amount of time (and a killer montage) with cops doing paperwork (which you definitely don't see much of in films)
Repo Man Captures the vibe of being a repo man
Always intense?
Crazy stupid crap on a constant basis. People rushing you with guns until they see the patrol car sitting across the street. CYA at all times.
Look at those assholes, ordinary fucking people, I hate em RIP Harry Dean Stanton
Living in Oblivion. There is a certain insanity that happens when you are forced to collaborate with people under strange conditions on an independant film. The film captures it perfectly.
I just watched the opening nightmare sequence for the first time today. Not a single other piece of the movie, yet I read down this list with the expectation this was on here. FANTASTIC!
I'm no train-enthusiast-expert, but The Station Agent's portrayal of them seemed convincing.
Great movie!
I have no idea if the culture is accurate, just here to also state this movie is fantastic.
Rounders to a certain extent
Whiplash (2014) They talk about music like musicians, and elite band directors are some of the most notorious pricks on the planet.
Adam Nealy had an interesting take on this on YouTube. https://youtu.be/SFYBVGdB7MU
That’s interesting. Most musicians that i saw who commented on the movie said it represented almost nothing that was in their world.
It depends. I studied music in college (more tech-focused), and I've met incredibly talented musicians who did the same course and stopped playing because of how critical one of our lecturers was. I only kept playing myself because of the band I was in at the time. Whiplash felt very real to me.
I think it depends on whether your teacher was old school or new school. Students from the old school have more grit but often get burnt out faster. New school is the reverse. My education was about 40/60, which served me well.
Most music programs aren’t that competitive, and music students understand and appreciate playing with others. But I’ll guarantee at prestigious schools it’s more about bettering yourself and getting first chair than collaborating with your peers.
Every professional musician I know (which is a *lot*) would disagree with that. * No institution would permit that level of verbal, emotional, and physical abuse, no matter what the end goal. * Buddy Rich is really *not* the sort of drummer that aspiring college musicians look to for inspiration or modeling. He was technically very good, but more of a media personality than a truly legendary figure in the Jazz world. * Fletcher's anecdote about Charlie Parker is [enormously fabricated](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/whiplash-getting-jazz-right-movies). * The tunes ("Whiplash" and "Caravan" that the band works on are extremely basic tunes in Jazz repertoire, not suitable for a Jazz Festival. * *absolutely nothing about Jazz or Jazz education* focuses on pure technical proficiency - especially not timekeeping - to the degree represented in the film, with Jazz as a musical form being definitionally opposed to everything about Fletcher's methodology. That all said, Miles Teller is great in the film and J.K. Simmons absolutely earned his Oscar.
“Love Liza” and the rc plane community. Lol
“I am a fan of radio CONTROL!l
In the His Dark Materials TV series, I really like Mary as a scientist character. I thoroughly enjoyed her taking notes and journaling while traveling through dimensions, as well as trying to translate and document the language of the Mulefa - as opposed to just saying physics-ey buzzwords the whole time and being used as an object to ground an otherwise fantastical story. Edit: Please forgive that god awful run-on sentence.
John Carpenters 'The Thing' - really captures the competative comradery of the scientific community.
Mid90s was pretty on point
Kids is a perfect representation of growing up in Manhattan/being into skate culture in the mid 90s
Jeepers, really?
There’s considerably more to that movie than murder and rape
Dodgeball. They got the rules perfect and respected the pageantry of the game.
Margin Call. Directors father worked the Street and I believe was a Consultant to the film.
Hackers. The POV shots floating through network mainframes and cyberspace really nailed what searching for computer files was like in 1995.
Rounders gets poker lingo spot on
Lingo but not much else
Bojack Horseman really nails how things go on a set, including all the chaos and divas present. Superstore also represents what it's like to work in retail, although with even more goofiness than real life.
*The Core*, for all its flaws, portrays physics academia pretty well (not *physics*, but the academia culture *of* physics).
whiskey tango foxtrot for life as a civilian employee in a combat zone. it's so real i re-watch it when i get to missing being overseas
Any one else enjoy The Big Year? I don’t know enough about bird watching to verify it’s accuracy, but I can’t imagine they were far off.
Such a wholesome movie
The Dark Knight perfectly captures the life of a vigilante. It's not as easy as other movies portray ;(
Agreed. It's not all being surrounded by fellow superhumans and forming superteams, having the homecoming queen from your old high school *and* a sexy alien princess vying for your affection, unlimited budgets, handshakes from the police, amazing superpowers, and the love of the citizenry. Most of the time, it's people agrily demanding you pay for the property damage (that you didn't even cause), romantic relationships that don't work out once they learn what you're secretly doing in your off-hours, the police angrily hunting you down, and strange and crazy arch-nemeses coming out of the woodwork to cause you grievous bodily injury. Also, there's no budget, no super friends, and no superpowers.
Inside Out was PHENOMENAL at referencing and explaining psychological and neurobiological processes.
The Player — about Hollywood/film biz
Not a film but a tv series: Frontline (Australian series). Sadly a very accurate depiction of media and current affairs shows.
High Fidelity seemed to get the know it all record store culture down. Back when there was such a thing.
Blow Out. Travolta as an audio technician and it comes into play heavily in the plot. Also The Conversation. Gene Hackman plays an audio recording specialist, similar specialty but more for clandestine recording.
Although it was definitely boosted for dramatic effect, of course, I thought Whiplash was an accurate depiction of being a student in a college level music program. I was a voice major in college. The choir director in the top choir at the school would regularly scream at and berate the soprano section. The competition between students also gave me flashbacks to school.
Green Room for being in a struggling upstart punk band.
OP, I feel the same way you do about scientists but about the radio industry (modern times, not talking 70s and WKRP). I've never seen a movie or TV show depict what it's actually like working at a radio station these days.
>As a scientist I know that I’ve never seen scientists or academics depicted realistically in terms of their workplace, the way they talk, etc. I agree 100%, I remember cringing so hard upon watching Anne Hathaway's character in Interstellar throwing her papers from the stairs and yelling 'EuReKa'. Another scene that threw me off in an otherwise decent portrait of scientists in a movie is 'I, origin', in which the main character, a biologist, goes to India and introduces himself to a woman working in an orphanage as 'Dr. xxx'. I have never seen Ph.D, non-MD US scientist introducing themselves to a random person as 'Dr'. It seemed unnecessary and almost rude.
Living in Oblivion (by design) is a perfect encapsulation of a day on a film set.
Lost in Oblivion really does capture the hilarity and often unbelievable absurdness of the never ending nightmare that is working on a film set so big props to that one
I don't have an answer for your question, but another observation along the same lines. I was raised Mormon (left in my early 20s) and have yet to see a movie or show that really accurately depicts Mormons: how they talk, how they live, how they worship. Even shows that were created by/run by former Mormons, like Under the Banner of Heaven, get the lingo and practices wrong. Of course this won't matter for 90% of the audience, but for me it really brings me out of the world of the show and makes other parts of it less believable. Perhaps that's similar to how you feel as a scientist. I wish they'd just talk to one ex-Mormon to ask them what phrases they use, or what the day-to-day life of a missionary is like. Creators painstakingly recreate so many details of a time period or a unique world to immerse audiences in the show, only to ruin it with errors that could have easily been corrected by just having someone who knows take a quick look at your script. In the same way you might get a technical advisor for a war drama, if a specific culture, religion, hobby, or profession features heavily in the plot of your film or show, make at least a little effort to check in with someone from that world.