The corporate world can be infuriatingly frustrating when the boss insists both on getting his or her way, and pretending to care about teamwork. Fortunately, it can be hilarious in the hands of the dark comic geniuses behind Corporate Animals. Plus, I’m freelance so I mock all of this.
Lucy Vanderton (Demi Moore) runs an edible utensil company and takes her employees on a team building retreat. She insists on exploring the advanced caves with a group of beginners. An earthquake causes a cave-in that kills their guide and traps them. Team Vanderton goes bonkers pretty quick.
It only takes five days for them to discuss eating the dead guide. That’s pretty outrageous, and hilariously graphic, and they don’t have fire so they have to eat him raw.
It gets crazier when they run out of guide meat. Then they start to rationalize who to eat next.
The situation of being trapped in a cave is automatically funny because each character has a distinct point of view that plays off of each other. Lucy keeps trying to manage and she is relentless with a combination of denial and bravado. Moore is awesome.
Aiden (Calum Worthy) is hallucinating from an infected injury. Billy (Dan Bakkedahl) just gives right up and goes borderline Col. Kurtz. Freddie (Karan Soni) is neurotic. Derek (Isiah Whitlock, Jr.) gets angry.
Jess (Jessica Williams) is more the cool and collected manager while Suzy (Nasim Pedrad) and May (Jennifer Kim) panic. Gloria (Martha Kelly), the quiet one, finally says what she’s been thinking.
Throughout the movie, every character makes such bad decisions and the results are hilarious. They’re dealing with the same personality conflicts of the office, only in a life or death situation.
Every attempt to find a way out is a comedy set piece. Every attempt to prolong survival is a comedy set piece. It’s so wrong, but that’s what dark comedy is all about.
The cast is full of comedians who deliver but they all orbit around Moore. She has never been this funny. I hope Corporate Animals is the beginning of a Demi Moore comedy renaissance.