3m; U.S.
Director: Jonathan Browning
Synopsis: Winning more than 30 awards at film festivals around the world, Browning’s short is a biting satire on US immigration policy and the global economic crisis.
Contact: http://www.thejobtheshort.com/
Category Archives: Comedy
The Promotion (2008)
85m; U.S.
Director: Steve Conrad
Synopsis (Wikipedia): Doug Stauber (Seann William Scott) is the assistant manager of a branch of Donaldson’s, a supermarket chain in Chicago. He believes that he is a “shoo-in” for manager of a Donaldson’s that is scheduled for construction just a few blocks away from his home. Everyday, Doug deals with the pressures of being the assistant manager. Among his ordeals are an unruly gang of black teenagers loitering around the parking lot, the overwhelming amount of negative comments on the customer survey cards he collects (nearly all of which are caused by the gang’s antics), a foreigner who constantly slaps him over a box of Teddy Grahams and the rumors about him being a former Junior Olympics medalist in gymnastics. Then one day, Richard Wehlner (John C. Reilly) and his family move in from Quebec, and he becomes assistant manager alongside Doug.
Over the course of the film, the two men fight for the managerial job, trying to impress the store’s manager Scott (Fred Armisen) and the Donaldson’s board of directors (led by Mitch, played by Gil Bellows). The competition causes strain on their respective marriages. Doug is under financial pressure to get the job because he has begun to buy a house that he cannot afford if he is not promoted while his wife Jen (Jenna Fischer) ponders on going to night school. Meanwhile, Richard’s wife Laurie (Lili Taylor) and daughter leave him to temporarily move to her parents’ home in Scotland when she sees he is losing control and reverting to previous problem behavior.
Contact: http://www.thepromotionmovie.com/
The Secret of My Success (1987)
111m; U.S.
Director: Herbert Ross
Cast: Michael J. Fox, Helen Slater and Richard Jordan
Synopsis (IMDB): Brantley Foster, a well-educated kid from Kansas, has always dreamed of making it big in New York. On his first work day in New York, he is fired in a hostile take-over and learns that jobs – and girls – are hard to get. When Brantley visits his distant uncle, Howard Prescott, who runs a multi-million-dollar company, he is given a job in the company’s mail room. Then Brantley meets Christy Wills, who happens to be one of the top executives. Brantley sees how poorly the company is being run and decides to create a position under the name Carlton Whitfield, to influence and improve the company’s operations. Soon things get unexpectedly out of hand, not in the least because of his aunt, his girl and leading a double life.
The Waiters (2006)
85m; U.S.
Director: Derik Wingo
Cast: Derik Wingo, Lorrainne Petersen and Scott Vogel
Synopsis: Taylor Starks and his co-workers, all aspiring actors, toil in a Los Angeles restaurant while “waiting” for their big break.
Tobacco Road (1941)
84m; U.S.
Director: John Ford
Cast: Charley Grapewin, Gene Tierney and Marjorie Rambeau
Synopsis (IMDB): Shiftless Jeeter Lester and his family of hillbilly stereotypes live in a rural backwater where their ancestors were once wealthy planters. Their slapstick existence is threatened by a bank’s plans to take over the land for more profitable farming; subplots involve the affairs and marriages of son Dude and daughter Ellie May.
The Toll (2006)
8m; U.S.
Director: J. Zachary Pike
Synopsis: ‘docu’-mentary about the Troll who collects the toll for crossing the bridge.
Contact: info@hatchling.com 603-436-0056 Found on 2007 Palm Springs Short Film Fest: http://www.psfilmfest.org/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=19323&FID=31
Trace of Stones (1966)
139m; East Germany
Director: Frank Beyer
Cast: Manfred Krug, Krystyna Stypulkowska and Jutta Hoffmann
Synopsis (IMDB): Hannes Balla is the foreman of a group of building construction workers at the large construction site “Schkona” in the GDR. They spend most of their time working hard and drinking harder – to some they are fun, to some they are a public nuisance. Things get more complicated when the good-looking Kati Klee is employed as a young technician, and the ambitious new Party Secretary, Werner Horrath, aims to boost work efficiency and downsize Balla’s ego. Kati slowly warms up to Werner, but is also attracted to Balla’s nonconformity. A contemporary movie about work, love, and everything in between.
Trading Places (1983)
116m; U.S.
Director: John Landis
Cast: Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd and Ralph Bellamy
Synopsis (IMDB): Louis Winthorpe is a businessman who works for commodities brokerage firm of Duke and Duke owned by the brothers Mortimer and Randolph Duke. Now they bicker over the most trivial of matters and what they are bickering about is whether it’s a person’s environment or heredity that determines how well they will do in life. When Winthorpe bumps into Billy Ray Valentine, a street hustler and assumes he is trying to rob him, he has him arrested. Upon seeing how different the two men are, the brothers decide to make a wager as to what would happen if Winthorpe loses his job, his home and is shunned by everyone he knows and if Valentine was given Winthorpe’s job. So they proceed to have Winthorpe arrested and to be placed in a compromising position in front of his girlfriend. So all he has to rely on is the hooker who was hired to ruin him.
Turumba (1981)
95m; Philippines
Director: Kidlat Tahimik
Cast: Homer Abiad, Iñigo Vito and Maria Pehipol
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