On its release waaaay back in 1980, the sweetly vitriolic comedy 9 To 5 got people talking in a major way. It ran big numbers at the box office, and its darkly amusing tale of three female office workers (played with gutsy aplomb by Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and brilliant-and-bold-as-brass first-timer Dolly Parton) who plot revenge against their incompetent, lecherous, lying, credit-stealing, bullying boss (played with sure-footed comic brilliance by Dabney Coleman) opened up public discussions about the constant railroading of women in the workplace. 9 To 5 was a true piece of zeitgeist filmmaking (aided immeasurably by its criminally toe-tapping Dolly Parton theme song), and it stands as a true 1980s classic: a ribald comedy with occasionally and viciously bared teeth.
After a short-lived and ill-fated TV series (starring the great Rita Moreno, no less) and a smash hit Broadway musical ingeniously engineered by Dolly Parton herself, the legacy of 9 To 5 has continued to reverberate through the years, with the film embraced for its bracing feminist message and beloved for its pithy comic sass. And this is where Still Working 9 To 5 comes in. Co-directed by Australian TV veteran and documentarian Camille Hardman (Big Dreamers) and American actor/director Gary Lane, this fun and frothy but wholly serious-minded doco plays out much like the original film itself by being wonderfully entertaining but concerned with very big issues at the same time.
