The Promotion

"Fuck, that was a good shopping experience!"

Screened at the 2008 SXSW Film Festival

The Apatow revolution is a godsend, but, with the exception of The 40 Year-Old Virgin, it has lacked an emphasis on filmmaking craft. The reigning kings of R-rated comedy are very smart people telling heartfelt stories that make us laugh very hard, but Superbad might have been a masterpiece with some fine-tuning, and a realization that Seth Rogen and John Heder’s doofus cops slow the film down. Knocked Up might have entered the pantheon of great comedies had it clocked in at 95 minutes instead of a flabby (albeit very funny) two hours plus. Don’t get me wrong — I remain happy to indulge Apatow and his protegés. But when it comes to editing their often-brilliant material into a cohesive cinematic whole, they’re not exactly the Coen brothers.

Steve Conrad made a name for himself with a pair of outstanding screenplays for The Weatherman and The Pursuit of Happyness. The Promotion, his remarkable directorial debut, is the response to Team Apatow’s sloppiness. Precise, clever, wonderfully strange, and so funny it hurts, it is simply the best studio comedy since 2005′s Virgin. That it is currently in the hands of the Weinstein Co. with no set release date does not bode well.

The story is vaguely familiar, and I kept expecting any one of a dozen Hollywood formulas to rear their heads — but they never did. Doug (Seann William Scott, finally finding a project worthy of his talents) is an assistant manager at a fictional chain grocery store called Donaldson’s, “where customers come first, even customers who are nuts.” When he learns that Donaldson’s is opening a new location in his city, he puts in for the full-manager position, hoping to move himself and his wife (Jenna Fischer) squarely into a comfortable middle-class existence. His boss (Fred Armisen) tells him he is a “shoo-in” for the job, which changes when new assistant manager Richard (John C. Reilly, amazing) arrives from Canada, wife and kid in tow. Richard declares his intent to also vie for the position, capping off the announcement with a cheerful “give me five”.

Canadian people are nice, as we learn from a hilarious non sequitur interlude depicting Canadian workplace interaction. And what is perhaps most shocking about The Promotion is that Richard (like Doug) really is nice, to the very core of his being. Weaned on comedic formulas, I kept expecting a skeleton to careen out of his closet, and for the film to finally commit to making the character a villain and Doug’s nemesis. No dice. Both men have their moments of professional jealousy that turns into viciousness — blame is cast, complaints are filed, injuries are faked — but the movie never lets us get comfortable rooting for one or the other. We soon realize that while the manager position may let Doug buy a house or get Richard his wife’s respect, it is not what matters to the movie. The important thing, at the end, is not whether Doug gets the job but — as one character eloquently puts it — whether he will be able to look the other man in the eyes and shake his hand.

The restraint and elegance of the plotting don’t keep the film from being very, very funny. Conrad has a strange, off-kilter sense of humor; his jokes never settle into any sort of predictable rhythm. Sometimes he goes over the top, as in Richard’s ridiculously attenuated explanation of why he ignored a joke sign purporting to give a deli employee an award for “cutting the cheese.” Other jokes are so obscure that I shook my head and chuckled in puzzlement, only to double over with laughter minutes later when the joke returned with a new twist. And then there is one seemingly random running gag that culminates in a payoff so brilliant that I needed to let the genius of it wash over me before I could even get a laugh out.

Throughout, The Promotion is efficient and exactingly crafted. When scenes go long, they do so because it’s necessary to the joke. Every comic seed Conrad plants blooms before the end of the film. A recognizable star’s cameo is there for a reason, as the film puts the actor’s unique talents to good use. Even the venture into physical comedy, which involves running barefoot across embers at a corporate retreat, is sharp, slowly accelerating to a huge laugh.

The Promotion is as close to a great film as we’ve seen so far this year. I savored every moment. Its future in the hands of the Weinsteins looks bleak, and is not helped by this dispatch from babbling idiot Kirk Honeycutt. If you get a chance to see it, do so — and spread the word.

-- Eugene Novikov