‘Still Working 9 to 5’ Review: Well-Crafted Doc Succeeds as Both ‘Making of’ Celebration and Cautionary Reminder
variety.comJoe Leydon Film CriticViewed with 20/20 hindsight, all of history appears inevitable simply because it went to the trouble of happening.
More than four decades after it defied skeptics, entertained millions, and hit the No. 2 spot (just behind “The Empire Strikes Back”) on the list of top-grossing 1980 movies, green-lighting “9 to 5” might now appear to be one of those surefire, no-brainer decisions made by Hollywood brass with absolute certainty of striking box-office gold.
It wasn’t, of course, and reminding us of just how dicey a proposition it really was back in the day is just one of the enlightening and amusing elements of “Still Working 9 to 5.”Documentarians Camille Hardman and Gary Lane do a splendidly entertaining job of showing how the comedy came together, with Jane Fonda — then at the height of her star power with two Oscars under her belt — and producing partner Bruce Gilbert serving as the driving forces for a film originally envisioned as a socially conscious drama (not unlike Fonda’s “The China Syndrome”), then a jet-black comedy, and finally a lighter and brighter piece of work that nonetheless hit all the right notes while underscoring injustices in the workplace.
Fonda was inspired to tell a story about three undervalued and incredibly underpaid secretaries by her interactions with Karen Nussbaum and Ellen Cassedy, who founded the 9to5 National Association of Working Women in 1973, and appear here among the many talking-head interviewees.
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