Too bad there are no more “Grace and Frankie” episodes to binge on? Step back to when the deep friendship between Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin — and Dolly Parton — began in ‘9 to 5,’ the 1980 hit comedy that became a classic.
The Roxie Theater presents a Sunday afternoon matinee of the film about three female office workers, angry at the treatment of female employees and determined to change their work culture, kidnap their chauvinistic boss (Dabney Coleman, one of the great actors 1980s) and run the business – the sweetly named Consolidated Companies – in his place.
The hilarious script from director Colin Higgins and Patricia Resnick is, 42 years later, still relevant, unfortunately. Fonda and Tomlin were so inspired by their work on the film that they teamed up to lend their support to workers’ rights issues, most recently for the One Fair Wage bill for restaurant workers.
The film, which made Parton, already a star in the music business, a legit movie star (she makes a surprise appearance in the finale of “Grace and Frankie”). Fonda and Tomlin were already stars, but decades later this might just be their most influential film.
It certainly touched a nerve at the time: The $10 million movie made over $100 million, which at the time meant it had been hanging around in theaters for well over a year.
—G. Allen Johnson
