The Promotion

A war of wills takes place between two men who want to run the same grocery store in this offbeat comedy from writer and director Steven Conrad. Doug (Seann William Scott) is a seemingly ordinary guy who works as the assistant manager of a supermarket near Chicago. When the owners of the market ...more

Seann William Scott (American Pie) stretches his comedic legs in The Promotion, Steve Conrad’s (The Pursuit of Happyness) modest film about dueling supermarket employees vying for the same coveted managerial position at a new store. Having jettisoned Stifler’s pompous vulgarity, Scott communicates humor through subtle facial contortions and snappy reactions to co-star John C. Reilly’s litany of idiosyncratic Canadian character quirks. The men spend their days stocking shelves and struggling to ...more

Even with Judd Apatow's name appearing nowhere on it, The Promotion has the flavor of an Apatow film -- due in part to the presence of Apatow collaborators John C. Reilly and Jenna Fischer, but also because the writer/director/producer's stamp seemed to be on all mainstream comedies released circa 2008. However, a number of things anchor The Promotion in the hit-and-miss world of independent comedy, most notably, its serious case of multiple-protagonist disorder. This supermarket comedy starts ...more