Dir. Jacob and Josh Kornbluth US 2001
Director/Writer/Actor Josh Kornbluth's comic monologue debuted
in San Francisco during the recession year of 1990 and the filmed adaptation
is perfectly timed to coincide with present conditions. Haiku Tunnel
is pitch perfect in its rendition of the wage-slave world where temps
are totally invisible to "perm" employees and where day-long seminars
are held on how to operate the copy machine. Josh loves the freedom
that temping affords, but when an omniscient office manager seduces him
with the come-on that the firm pays for psychotherapy, his resolve weakens.
The movie's most chilling moment is when a yuppie, while giving Josh a
tour of her to-die-for Mission condo, becomes overtaken and breathlessly
intones how she can almost still feel the artists who once lived in these rooms. (88m)
