Themes: Crisis of Conscience, Work Ethics, Office Politics
Main Cast: Helen Shumaker, Josh Kornbluth, Warren Keith, Amy Resnick
Release Year: 2001
Country: US
Run Time: 90 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
A temp worker is promoted to permanent status and finds his whole world changing as a result in this satiric comedy. Josh (Josh Kornbluth) is an overstuffed aspiring writer who is trying to finish his first novel, but in the meantime he supports himself by working as an office temp. Josh has grown accustomed to the Byzantine world of temporary labor, particularly the bossy secretaries and chilly co-workers, but Josh manages to impress his latest employers enough that they offer to make him a permanent, full-time employee. While a fellow temp who worked for the same company warns Josh that taking the job would be a mistake, Josh takes the plunge anyway, and soon discovers that his fellow employees now embrace him as one of their own. He also discovers that Bob Shelby (Warren Keith), his new boss, is more than a little crazy, and when Bob gives Josh an assignment to mail a series of important letters, John finds that he's suddenly incapable of doing this seemingly simple task. Instead, Josh spends his days working on his book (on company time and on a company computer), with his fellow office drones offering emphatic encouragement. Josh Kornbluth adapted Haiku Tunnel (with the help of John Bellucci and Jacob Kornbluth) from a semi-improvised one-man show Kornbluth created with David Ford; the Kornbluth brothers also directed the film. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Effusive, roly-poly writer Josh Kornbluth co-directs and stars in this workplace comedy that's lighter in tone than Clockwatchers and less like an extended Saturday Night Live sketch than the more derivative moments of Office Space. An adaptation of a monologue Kornbluth wrote about temping in San Francisco law firms, Haiku Tunnel is refreshingly funny because it avoids the easy Dilbert route of making all the higher-ups incompetent fascists whose offices run like a paean to arbitrary inefficiency. In fact, the most dysfunctional aspect of the story is the "victim" himself, Kornbluth, who uses his own name to strike down the wall between truth and fiction. An office drifter who vacillates between contented anonymity and a deeper desire for human contact and fulfillment, Kornbluth is undone by the very conditions of his rootless existence, not by his "evil boss," a thematic red herring who's more of a forgiving fuddy-duddy than the devil incarnate. Kornbluth's wide-eyed manner of addressing the audience is intimate and endearing, and his sense of humor is as oddball as his wild appearance. His narration features sharp comic observations about the community he's studied and documented during hours of boredom, realized through lively devices. For example, as a different face appears in each frame, he lists the exotic names of all the receptionists he's worked with -- Charlene, Aileen, Charlena -- and the panoply of attorneys, all named Bob. The only familiar face among an unknown cast is Harry Shearer, who, oddly enough, appears in one of the least inspired scenes, playing a familiar automaton guiding Kornbluth through the drudgery of orientation. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Cast
Josh Kornbluth - "Josh Kornbluth"
Warren Keith - Bob Shelby
Amy Resnick - Mindy
Helen Shumaker
Credit
Doria Summa - Associate Producer, Josh Kornbluth - Director, Jacob Kornbluth - Director, Robin Lee - Editor, Michael Peyser - Executive Producer, Marco D'Ambrosio - Composer (Music Score), Brian Benson - Producer, Josh Kornbluth - Producer, Jacob Kornbluth - Producer, Melanie Tomlin - Set Designer, Josh Kornbluth - Screenwriter, Jacob Kornbluth - Screenwriter, John Bellucci - Screenwriter
Josh is the consummate temp employee, avoiding all long-term connections and responsibilities, both at work and in his personal life. However, by the time his agency places him at the Schuyler & Mitchell law firm, Josh is tired of his temporary life and agrees to take a permanent position at the firm. Josh has difficulty adapting to his new lifestyle, which manifests in his inability to complete his simple initial task: mailing seventeen important letters.
Meaning of the title
The Interstate H-3 is a huge document containing lists of all the products needed for a tunnel in Hawaii. Josh was working in a word processing job when he was given the project. At the time he was "totally-temp" and as he was going through copying this project, he found himself inside the Haiku Tunnel. And now that he finally had what he always wanted (no strings attached) he found himself unhappy.
