Film

The Apartment

Name: The Apartment
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Released: 1960
Cast: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, Ray Walston, Jack Kruschen

Workplace drama

Billy Wilder's tightrope walk between office comedy and heartbreak. C.C. Baxter lends his apartment to bosses for their affairs, climbing the corporate ladder on borrowed sheets, until the woman he actually loves becomes collateral damage. Funny, cynical about corporate life, and then suddenly, without warning, one of the most tender love stories in American film. For anyone who likes romance with a hangover attached.

TMDb rating

4.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy comedies that turn a bleak office setup into a bittersweet, sharply observed romance, where the laughs sit right next to a real ache.

Skip it if you want a light, fast night out, since at just over two hours its patient, sour-edged drift toward office cynicism can feel heavy.

What it asks of you: At 126 minutes, its shape is a slow, wry build through workplace indignity before the tone warms and tilts toward something tender.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Some Like It Hot1959

Wilder and Lemmon again, this time cranked into pure farce — proof the same director who made you cry could also make you howl. It's dizzying, quick, and endlessly clever.

But Broader and sillier by design; the cross-dressing caper has none of The Apartment's melancholy or quiet ache.

The Graduate1967

Another decent young man drifting through a corrupt, transactional adult world, told with the same mix of dry comedy and real despair underneath the jokes.

But Swaps office politics for suburban ennui and a much colder, more detached sensibility than Wilder's warmth.

Sweet Smell of Success1957

Same New York, same moral rot in tailored suits, but curdled into something far meaner — a bitter companion piece on what ambition actually costs you.

But There's no romance to soften it; this is cynicism with the safety off, and it stays that way.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Apartment

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Nights of Cabiria1957

Both films center on a warm, unglamorous woman used carelessly by men, and insist — without ever losing tenderness toward anyone — that she deserves far better.

Fellini's hopeful sex worker gets failed, again and again, by men who claim to care — and the film refuses to let that cynicism win.

But Subtitled Italian neorealism with almost no comic relief; the tragedy here sits much nearer the surface than Wilder's.

Mad Men2007

The definitive small-screen portrait of office affairs, quiet desperation and ambition dressed in the same era's cigarette smoke and gray suits.

But Seven seasons is a real commitment next to a two-hour film — slower, more diffuse, built for lingering rather than resolving.

Broadcast News1987

A whip-smart workplace triangle of ambition, decency and desire, played for laughs that still land somewhere near the heart.

But Faster-talking and chattier than Wilder's film, with an 80s newsroom energy that trades melancholy for velocity.

Marty1955

A small, humble, deeply lonely love story between two unglamorous people who finally see each other — the same tenderness, stripped of Wilder's satire.

But Almost no comedy here; it's slower and quieter, with none of the office-world bite you came for.

Annie Hall1977

Another bittersweet New York romance mixing jokes with real sadness about how hard it is to actually stay happy with someone.

But Woody Allen's neurotic, fourth-wall-breaking voice is a very different, more self-aware flavor of funny.

Groundhog Day1993

A cynical operator forced to genuinely become a better man to deserve love — Baxter's moral arc, wrapped in a high-concept comic premise.

But The fantastical setup is a world away from Wilder's grounded realism; broader and considerably warmer throughout.

Lost in Translation2003

Two lonely people forming an unlikely bond in a city indifferent to both of them — the same ache, spoken in a much quieter register.

But Almost no plot and very little comedy; this is mood and stillness rather than jokes with stakes attached.

The Crowd1928

This is Baxter's direct ancestor: the faceless man among identical desks, dreaming of being noticed. Vidor's endless office rows are the exact image Wilder borrowed decades later.

A silent-era portrait of an anonymous clerk swallowed by the city and the corporation, decades before Wilder gave that same nobody a name, a raincoat, and an apartment.

But No dialogue, intertitles only, and a slower, more meditative pace — a real adjustment for modern eyes.

Nine to Five1980

It takes the exact power structure The Apartment quietly indicts — bosses trading employees' loyalty and bodies for convenience — and detonates it into outright, satisfying comic rebellion.

Same office-as-prison, same lecherous bosses, same women treated as disposable — but flipped into a gleeful revenge comedy where the underlings actually win.

But Broad, silly, and openly cartoonish where Wilder stays grounded; feminist farce rather than bittersweet character study.