Just when I thought the day would end without a single bit of funny ... The Promotion trailer has finally arrived! You've probably heard us talk about this movie a good gazillion times already, but if you haven't, listen up: It's really good and stuff. Yes, a bunch of us here at Cinematical saw The Promotion when it premiered at SXSW in March and we absolutely fell in love with its characters, its story, its performances and its charm.

Written and directed by Steve Conrad (writer of The Pursuit of Happyness), The Promotion stars Seann William Scott and John C. Reilly as two guys who REALLY want to land the new managerial job at the supermarket across town. In fact, both will go to great lengths to get that job -- and, while the premise sounds sort of played, silly and uninteresting, the execution is wonderful. This is truly one of my favorite films of the year so far, and we hope you like it too. Moviefone just premiered the new trailer (see above), and they did a pretty good job setting the film up for you, tone and all. As I've said, it's Election set in a supermarket -- so when you watch the trailer, keep that in mind.

The Promotion hits theaters on June 6. Go see it!

God, I love this movie. Cinematical has received two exclusive stills for The Promotion, directed by Steve Conrad (writer of The Pursuit of Happyness and The Weather Man). You can check out larger versions of both photos in the gallery below, but listen up: Go see this flick when it arrives in theaters this June 6. I'll give you the same pitch I've been giving everyone else: Picture Election in a supermarket with older main characters. This isn't some stupid, cheesy broad comedy -- it's intelligent, it's hysterical and it features what is perhaps the best performance from Seann William Scott I've ever seen.

Essentially, The Promotion (read our review here) is about two nice guys who just happen to be going for the same job as manager of a new supermarket opening up across town. Toss in a slew of random characters, a well-written story and witty dialogue, and that's The Promotion. Yes, there are a bunch of other comedies opening up this summer with bigger stars, bigger budgets and bigger marketing campaigns. I'll say this, though: 10 bucks The Promotion turns out better than all of them. Easily my favorite comedy of the year so far.

Now stand up, walk over to your calendar and draw a big red circle around June 6. Underneath, in that little box, scribble in: "Need to see The Promotion." You'll thank us later.

As I mention every chance I get, we at Cinematical looooove Steve Conrad's scrappy little comedy The Promotion. And now we have the official poster (courtesy of those folks over at The Weinstein Co.), which contains the words that are music to our ears: "Coming This June." Of course it's a Weinstein Co. special, so you never know, but this is certainly a good sign. The film recently had a promo screening here in Philadelphia (probably another good sign), and I convinced a few prominent local critics to attend. That means that if they didn't like it, they probably now hate me. But so be it.

According to the Weinstein Co. website, The Promotion -- which remains my favorite film of the year -- has an official release date of June 6th. And if you promise to go see it, I promise I'll shut up about it for a while.

My favorite part of attending a film festival comes when you discover a smaller film that hits you in a way that almost forces you to throw up everything you know about the flick whenever someone asks. They could be, like, "So, how ya feeling today?" And then you can't help but answer, "I'm good ... but you HAVE to see this friggin' film. It's called (insert the title) and it's unbelievable -- easiest the best thing I've seen in the history of best things I've seen ... times a gabillion!"

Okay, maybe you don't flip out like that -- but you get the idea. So far this year I've hit up Sundance, Slamdance and SXSW, with plans to soon visit the Gen Art Film Festival here in New York, as well as Tribeca soon after. Thankfully, I've seen two films that absolutely rocked my world, and if I could use every other post just to write about them -- in the hopes all of you will go see these films, and champion them -- I would. But I can't. So from time to time, I will pop in, mention the titles and hope something sticks. As of right now, these are the two films I am championing this year: The Hottie and the Nottie and ... just kidding. Kidding, people. I'm KIDDING! God! Chill out.

AnyWAY, here are the two films: Dear Zachary: a letter to a son about his father (Slamdance) and The Promotion (SXSW). The first is a gripping, tear-jerker of a documentary from a very cool dude named Kurt Kuenne. Alex from First Showing went to see Zachary at SXSW on my recommendation and it blew him away. It will blow you away. Fingers crossed a deal comes soon ... and you bet I'll be back telling you all about it.

The Promotion, on the other hand, is all the way on the other end of the spectrum. It's a comedy. A dry comedy ... where Seann William Scott plays the straight man -- go figure. Not sure if the Weinstein Co. know they have a little gem in their basket; hopefully Kirk Honeycutt didn't scare them stupid. This one is set to come out on June 6, so make sure you're there.

Which films are you absolutely nutty about this year -- to the point where you stop random strangers in the street to tell them all about it?

In a little while we'll be shoveling out our list of the ten best films from this year's South by Southwest Film Festival, and we'll continue to finish off our reviews over the weekend, but in the meantime I figured I'd stop by and give you my final thoughts (as a person who attended the fest for the first time this year). SXSW is wayyy different from, say, Sundance or even Tribeca, because there's an unbelievable amount of partying going on ... all the time. You can't leave a screening without seeing a row of about seven bars lined up across the street -- all of which have live music blaring out their doors. Yeah. So it's a bit difficult to see a film, then run home and review it -- because there are several different awesome obstacles in your way. Not that that's a bad thing.

First off, a few films that really need some love:

• Starring John C. Reilly and Seann William Scott, The Promotion was, by far, the funniest film I've seen all year. If you adore Election, then you'll definitely like this flick -- which I've said is like Election ... but in a supermarket ... with older guys.
• I'm not much of a horror guy AT ALL, but Dance of the Dead was one helluva fun flick. So fun that half our Cinematical crew went to see it twice in, like, three days. Of course, watching it at the Alamo Ritz was definitely part of the experience (they shot down confetti during one scene ... and it was super awesome), but the film itself is still one of the more original zombie flicks I've seen since Shaun of the Dead. Very funny. Very well done. (Two words: Graveyard scene.)
• Joe Swanberg's Nights and Weekends was another flick I really enjoyed. Different, unique -- it may piss off those of you looking for structured plots and predictable outcomes, but give it a shot when IFC releases it later this year. (Keep in mind, though, that Joe is fond of "revealing his parts" on screen.)
• I also adored both Super High Me and Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but I don't think those need the love -- folks will flock regardless of what I say.

After the jump ... I become a superhero and save one thousand half-nekked women from a group of monsters and three psycho nuns -- all while eating BBQ at Iron Works with Weinberg ...

To: The Hollywood Reporter's Kirk Honeycutt

Regarding your quote: "The Promotion must be one of the unfunniest comedies ever."

Subject: Your New Netflix Queue

2001: A Space Travesty, The Adventures of Pluto Nash, Amos & Andrew, Are We Done Yet?, Baby Geniuses 2, B*A*P*S, Because I Said So, The Benchwarmers, Big Momma's House 2, Black Knight, Blue Streak, Boat Trip, Bratz, Bringing Down the House, Caddyshack 2, Celtic Pride, Chairman of the Board, Christmas with the Kranks, The Comebacks,Cop and a Half, Daddy Day Camp, Date Movie, Deck the Halls, Delta Farce, Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, Eight Crazy Nights, Employee of the Month, Evan Almighty, The Ex, Exit to Eden, Dirty Love, Down to Earth, Dumb & Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd, Envy, Epic Movie, For Richer or Poorer, Freddy Got Fingered, Good Luck Chuck, Gold Diggers, Gone Fishin', Grandma's Boy, Head of State, The Hottie and the Nottie, How High, It's Pat!, Jingle All the Way, Jury Duty, Just My Luck, Juwanna Mann, Kazaam, Kickin' It Old Skool, King's Ransom, Krippendorf's Tribe, Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, Leonard Part 6, Little Nicky, Let's Go to Prison, License to Wed, Little Man, Look Who's Talking Too, Loose Cannons, Love Stinks, The Man, Man of the Year, Mannequin 2: On the Move, Marci X, The Master of Disguise, Meet the Spartans, Meet Wally Sparks, Monster-in-Law, Mr. Woodcock, Must Love Dogs, My Baby's Daddy, My Boss's Daughter, New York Minute, Norbit, Nothing But Trouble, Police Academy 7: Mission to Moscow, Ready to Rumble, Ringmaster, Say It Isn't So, Serving Sara, Snow Dogs, Son of the Mask, Soul Plane, Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, Strange Wilderness, Stroker Ace, Tomcats, Uptown Girls, Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj, The Wash, Weekend at Bernie's 2, Whipped, Who's Your Caddy, White Chicks, Wild Hogs, Without a Paddle, Witless Protection, You, Me & Dupree

From: Your Friends at Cinematical :-)

A few years ago, we were treated subjected to a retail farce known as Employee of the Month, a near-witless comedy that pitted Dane Cook and Dax Shepard against each other as moronic clerks who vie for the title of (you guessed it) Employee of the Month. I knew there was a lot of room for successful comedy in this sort of premise, but aside from a stray chuckle or two, EOTM was an entirely stale and completely sitcom-level effort.

Now comes a very small, very funny, and oddly warm-hearted flick in sort of the same vein. It's called The Promotion; it stars Sean William Scott and John C. Reilly; it was written and directed by first-timer Steve Conrad ... and if it comes out in 2008, then it will definitely end up in my top ten of the year. (Conrad is a first-time director; his previous screenplays include Wrestling Ernest Hemingway, The Weather Man, and The Pursuit of Happyness.) 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! It's a great comedy with an excellent message delivered by a bunch of actors who are clearly savoring the material. (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.)

I just spent the last half hour with the newly-released SXSW schedule, which we brought to you earlier today. Even though I'm only a week or so away from Sundance, it's now time to get all suited up for SXSW -- a festival I'll be heading to for the first time come March. To say I'm f**king ecstatic to finally visit Austin, the Alamo Drafthouse and nosh on some tasty Texan BBQ would be an understatement. I'm beyond ecstatic. I'm f**king ecstatic times a gabillion. Seriously. And when I finally went through the schedule before, I found myself itching to see literally every single film screening this year. Holy sh*t, did Matt Dentler and his crew nail down a sweeeet lineup, or what? I'm hating Dentler right now -- what the hell am I going to see? There's so many great-looking flicks this year, my head is friggin' spinning.

Regardless of what I actually wind up seeing (Scott, Jette, Peter, Snider and I are already quietly fighting for titles behind the scenes), know that Cinematical will definitely be bringing you reviews, interviews and scene coverage for some pretty big films. We shall get the early word on flicks like Harold and Kumar Go to Guantanamo Bay, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, 21, Stop-Loss, Battle in Seattle, The Promotion, Shine a Light ... and so many more. I'm there for six days, and I can tell you now that I will see more films in six days then I will probably see in the next six months. We'll also be bringing you lots of on-the-scene coverage, for those of you who can't make it to Austin this year. So if there's anything in particular you want to see from our SXSW coverage, do let us know.

After skyrocketing to big-screen fame while playing the girl-next-door-type on NBC's The Office, Jenna Fischer is itching to do what most actresses fear: nudity. Lots of it. While speaking to MTV, Fischer revealed that she's currently working on her own film, one she's co-writing, producing and -- we imagine -- starring in as well. It's an indie comedy -- or as she calls it, "a real ensemble comedy" -- and while she wouldn't give up a whole lot of details, she did reveal two of the stars: "Boobs! You don't see the whole thing, folks, but there's a lot of the ladies in this film that have been hidden under Pam's sweaters for a long time. I also just think the sort of humor of it [will surprise people]. I think we're used to seeing me a little more confined. And this is, like, a bigger, bolder, brassier part ... with a lot of boobies."

Mmmm, nothing wrong with "a lot of boobies," says the guy whose wife isn't in the room. When asked who else she'd like to see in the film, Fischer responded, "I hope John C. Reilly will star in with me. Because I would actually like to do every single film with John C. Reilly for the rest of my career." There's something we have in common -- I, myself, wouldn't mind seeing John C. Reilly perform in every single film that comes out for the rest of my life. Love the guy. Always have, always will. And if that's her wish, then she's off to a good start: Fischer currently stars opposite Reilly in the musical comedy Walk Hard (due out later this month), and is also working on a comedy called The Promotion opposite -- you guessed it - John C. Reilly. So look for plenty of Fischer, Reilly and boobies at your local cineplex real soon.

UPDATE: Jenna was mis-quoted in the MTV interview; she does not, in fact, get naked in this new indie feature. I repeat: She does NOT go topless. She was referring to her role in Walk Hard, and the fact that she "shows a lot of chest" in the movie. Not her bare chest, mind you, but her chest. Clothed. Sorry guys. But we still love you Jenna!