Tomorrow night at SXSW we have the world premiere of Steven Conrad’s THE PROMOTION – this directorial debut is from the screenwriter of THE WEATHER MAN & THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS. Two films that were small films about struggling with one’s position or lot in life. THE PROMOTION very much continues his work in that oeuvre.

This is all about securing the manager position at the new DONALDSON’S Grocery store. Not an epic tale, not the sort of success stories that ever make it into newspapers, magazines or even the Neighborhood updates. You see, this story begins with an assistant manager that is in a pretty terrible situation.

He’s in love, in fact he’s past that, he’s married. The fella is played by Seann William Scott – an actor – that I’m not particularly fond of – and who I constantly refer to as Stifler. You know he hates that… but here – he’s remarkably un-goofy… he isn’t mugging, he’s playing his part as a husband that desperately wants to improve his wife and his situation. You see, they live in an apartment – where a pair of gay banjo players live next door through paper thin walls… they have a habit of playing scales when they hear the married couple making love.

This nightmarish, annoying living condition makes Seann’s character want to buy a house they’ve found, but at their current income, they couldn’t make it. At work, he’s told that he’s a shoe in for the new manager position. So, unknown to his wife – he’s gone to the bank and told them he has the promotion and has committed and signed to buy the house. He’s now locked in.

The next thing you know… A new transfer Assisstant Manager from Canada has swooped in… And he’s vying for the position of Manager of the new Donaldson’s. This Canadian evil bastard competitor is played by… the man-god… John C Reilly.

As he’s introduced – we know nothing about him. You’d figure that he’d be the typical Canadian… impossibly professional, shit together mega-steroid version of the average American. Suddenly – Seann has something to sweat.

Now – at this point – you can imagine how the rest goes – but Steven Conrad does not take the path most traveled. Characters evolve, change and surprise you at every turn. Reilly’s character is awesome – not in his perfection, but his imperfections. And shockingly Seann William Scott has risen to the occasion and delivered my favorite performance in his miserable career, to date. That’s not a backhanded complement though – he’s really really natural here – which is something that though he wasn’t capable of.

The film this most resembles to me isn’t either of the films that Conrad’s writing skills were responsible for… but rather… OFFICE SPACE. The comedy is specific and dead on to the world of Grocery Store politics. All of a sudden, it isn’t simply a place where we buy food and toilet paper… There’s an issue of Lot Detail… what is that? See the film. It is a situation that becomes hilarious. What about restocking? The other characters at the store?

Is the film as great as OFFICE SPACE – well… given that it took me about a year to really catch on to OFFICE SPACE, I’m not the one to say – but I feel this film has real cult comedy potential – does it have break-out potential. Possibly, the humor and wit and heart are there – I saw this as a screener – so I haven’t seen it with an audience and this is definitely an audience film – one that a crowd would enjoy.