The Promotion.

Scott Foundas in the Voice on The Promotion: "Making his directorial debut, screenwriter Steven Conrad (who previously wrote The Weather Man and The Pursuit of Happyness) continues his career-long interest in success and self-fulfillment in America with this low-key, witty, observant farce about two rival assistant managers (Seann William Scott and John C Reilly) vying for a coveted career opportunity at a Chicagoland supermarket."

"Think of it as a polite, tightly muzzled Clerks," suggests Stephen Holden in the New York Times.

Updated.

It's "a comedy of restraint that almost seems out of place in an era when You Don't Mess With the Zohan is considered standard operating procedure," writes S James Snyder in the New York Sun. "Anyone who has lived in Canada, or in a Midwestern city with a Scandinavian heritage such as Chicago, where The Promotion takes place, should respond warmly to Mr Conrad's approach to this story of quiet, deceptive blue-collar office warfare. If NBC's The Office has a meaner streak to its rendition of office culture, then The Promotion is the more pitiable and introverted side of the familiar coin."

"[W]hat is most different about The Promotion in today's movie market is its unusual lack of malignancy, to the point that one feels sympathetic to both the apparent protagonist, Doug [Scott], and the apparent antagonist, Richard [Reilly]," writes Andrew Sarris in the New York Observer. "Then what accounts for the quiet horror of the situation? Dare I say it? It's the infernal system that tortures and enslaves the great majority of ordinary people."

"John C Reilly long ago established himself as one of our best film actors," writes Nathan Rabin at the AV Club. "He's quickly emerging as one of our funniest actors as well, thanks to turns in Prairie Home Companion, Year of the Dog, Talledega Nights and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. Reilly's evolution from theater-trained thespian to funnyman continues with a standout turn in The Promotion as a heartbreakingly fragile former biker/drug addict just barely hanging onto his hard-won happiness and sobriety in the face of fearsome professional competition with an archrival played by Seann William Scott."

"It's one of those off-balance movies that seems searching for the right tone," writes Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times.

"One of the chief virtues of this modest, eccentric comedy is Conrad's refusal to make the Canadian interloper with the Scottish wife (Lili Taylor, always a pleasure) an easily pegged antagonist," writes the Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips. "If the film disappoints, it's because Conrad doesn't do much to amplify the competitive gamesmanship of the would-be managers."

Stephen Saito talks with Conrad for the IFC.

David Wilonsky talks with Scott and Conrad for the AV Club.

Update: "This is a fantastic little comedy, filled with all sorts of weird little moments and strange diversions, but at its core, The Promotion is a profanely sweet-natured dual character study that doles out a lot of laughs while actually celebrating... small doses of actual humanity!" exclaims Scott Weinberg at Cinematical, where he adds, "(My normal m.o. is to 'champion' smaller horror flicks, but a good movie is a good movie, period. If I can turn a dozen people onto The Promotion, then I'm doing my job.)"

Posted by dwhudson at June 6, 2008 7:08 AM