Pauline Kael

“[In The Incredible Shrinking Woman, Lily Tomlin is] more spontaneous… than she has been on the screen before…. Lily Tomlin looks much more angular in Nine to Five. Her deadpan straight shooter performance, with the character's feelings coming out in precise, venomous inflections, is like an extended version of one of her TV skits; still, it is shaded enough to give some comic distinction to this piece of strong-arm whimsy, directed by Colin Higgins… Lily Tomlin plays a smart, efficient office worker who is passed over for promotion while men she has trained move up, and at times you could swear that you saw the clicking of her mind in her slitted eyes. (They glitter in one brief scene, and there's genuine wit in the sparks she gives off.)….” 

-- Pauline Kael, New Yorker, March 9, 1981