10 Insane Movies Way Deeper Than They Look

4. Office Space

On a superficial level, Mike Judge's cult classic comedy Office Space is a broad, hilariously cartoonish satire of modern office life - a cathartic commentary on the soul-eroding drudgery of working for an uncaring employer in any field.

Yet go below the surface and Judge's film is really one of the finest existential comedies of its era - and that's precisely why it's struck such a strong emotional chord with entire generations of people stuck working mundane jobs.

Even the undeniably silly setup, in which disgruntled protagonist Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) is hypnotised into a permanently relaxed state, feeds into a wider running thematic about the ways we choose to spend our precious, brief time on this planet.

The hyper-bureaucratised nature of the company where Peter and his pals work, Initech, meanwhile feels practically Kafkaesque, transforming a blandly mundane office environment into a nightmarish hellscape which threatens to swallow the soul of any who allows it.

While Office Space could've settled for being a cheeky comedy about how much working life can suck, it dares to explore the very basic essence of being human and being alive - the pursuit of happiness in all of its painful discovery and inevitable compromise.