"Extract" is an exuberant original. This daft farce about a man who has founded and run a successful flavor extract company and lost the sexual attention of his wife is a workplace film like no other and one of the best comedies of the year.
The film has sharper testicle jokes than all of the Judd Apatow gang's recent farces put together, a poolside seduction that's organic and uproarious, and a streak of stoner-slacker humor that's like repeated hits from a bong that's actually good for you.
If those accolades have a primal ring to them, it's because writer-director Mike Judge, who a decade ago made the ultimate cubicle movie, "Office Space," brings the brains of a satirical biologist to his view of life on a bottling line and in all the office nooks and crannies - and trailer parks and upscale suburbs - surrounding it. If the movie doesn't surge with unabated potency like classic screwball comedy, it's got its own erratic snap, crackle and pop. And the ensemble (including Jason Bateman as company owner Joel Reynold and Kristen Wiig as his wife, Suzie) is seamless even when the action isn't.
