“I am not a violent man, but I did once swing a lead pipe at someone.”
So says Tyler Magill, a former parking lot attendant, who is interviewed in Meghan Eckman’s Parking Lot Movie. Magill’s explanation for this action is that his victim refused to pay the 40 cent parking fee. But this isn’t just Magill’s way of handling these situations, it embodies the attitudes of all his other fellow attendants. Some of which are college students, some are mid-thirties and have been doing it for at least ten years. But they all agree that the job is plenty of fun.
They acknowledge the poor reputation of their title, they say they are being paid to do almost nothing, and they exalt the activity as one of the most worth-while things they will ever do. But with their enthusiasm and bitter disgust for the lot’s winy customers, comes a dry sense of humor that encompasses the whole film. The way the parking lot is defined by the attendants’ funny rituals and sarcastic words reminds me of one of my favorite television shows, The Office.
But while The Office gets its hilarity from constant exaggeration, The Parking Lot, being a documentary, consists of cruel sincerity. Throughout the film, we are shown the duties, habits, pastimes, and philosophies of the employees. By the end, you will feel like you have actually met them, which is something hardly any Hollywood movies have achieved.
Its only significant flaw lies in the very beginning, and that is that it fails to intrigue the audience enough to watch the picture all the way through. But none-the-less, there aren’t many slow bits once it picks up. After all, it is only an hour and fifteen minutes and ends up being a funny, entertaining film that is well worth the time.
Rating: 4/5
Moore on Movies 