Worth: $18.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton, Rita Moreno, Allison Janney, Dabney Coleman
Intro:
...vivid, absorbing and very funny...
On its release waaaay back in 1980, the sweetly vitriolic comedy 9 To 5 got people talking in a major way. It ran big numbers at the box office, and its darkly amusing tale of three female office workers (played with gutsy aplomb by Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and brilliant-and-bold-as-brass first-timer Dolly Parton) who plot revenge against their incompetent, lecherous, lying, credit-stealing, bullying boss (played with sure-footed comic brilliance by Dabney Coleman) opened up public discussions about the constant railroading of women in the workplace. 9 To 5 was a true piece of zeitgeist filmmaking (aided immeasurably by its criminally toe-tapping Dolly Parton theme song), and it stands as a true 1980s classic: a ribald comedy with occasionally and viciously bared teeth.
After a short-lived and ill-fated TV series (starring the great Rita Moreno, no less) and a smash hit Broadway musical ingeniously engineered by Dolly Parton herself, the legacy of 9 To 5 has continued to reverberate through the years, with the film embraced for its bracing feminist message and beloved for its pithy comic sass. And this is where Still Working 9 To 5 comes in. Co-directed by Australian TV veteran and documentarian Camille Hardman (Big Dreamers) and American actor/director Gary Lane, this fun and frothy but wholly serious-minded doco plays out much like the original film itself by being wonderfully entertaining but concerned with very big issues at the same time.
Through engaging and candid interviews with all of the major players (except, of course, for co-writer/director Colin Higgins, who sadly passed away in 1988), along with key figures from the American women’s movement, Still Working 9 To 5 tracks not just the making of the film itself, but also the feminist activism that inspired it, and the advances in the women’s movement that came after it. A vivid, absorbing and very funny distillation of a flashpoint cultural moment that continues to burn hot today, Still Working 9 To 5 amuses and enrages in equal measure as it rails passionately against workplace oppression.
Still Working 9 To 5 will have its Australian premiere at The Inner West Film Fest on Sunday April 2 at Palace Cinemas Norton Street. Camille Hardman will be in attendance for a very special Q&A session after the film. For further information and ticket sales, click here.
