Daytona Beach Film Festival 2008

New York City. 1974. On a winter morning a father and his teenage son are walking to work. The son was suspended from school for possession of drugs and is irritated that his punishment – working for his dad – is so uncool. These scenes are inter-cut with the father’s employees preparing for their work day – a junky secretly shooting up; a fiancée freaking about marriage; a glam rocker reverting to stock boy and a Burt Reynolds wannabe hitting on the company secretary. Busted Walk is based on the writer/director’s experience growing up with ankylosing spondalitis, a severe form of arthritis.

Ted Meyers, (Breckin Meyer, “Road Trip,” “Rat Race” recently starred as Garfield’s live action owner, Jon) is a young computer nerd from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Ted is happy and thankful for what he’s got; a lovely wife, (Laura Harris,) two kids and a modest home in the suburbs. Then one day the CEO of his company, (George Coe) promotes him from project developer (“eraserhead”) to project manager, (“dollar sign.”) Although Ted is hardly qualified for the job, his boss, Jack Hightower, (Adam Scott,) tells him not to worry, that in six months he’ll get the equivalent of an MBA in experience. Trouble surfaces; the company’s malfunctioning machines may have dire consequences for food safety, air traffic control and weather forecasts. Still, Ted soldiers on, wading deeper into a muck of corporate and sexual hypocrisy. Then one night, alone in Philadelphia, and saddled with a computer system failure, Ted hooks up with Chris, (Melinda Page Hamilton,) an almost angelic call girl. After letting her seduce him, Ted comes up with a fix for the ailing machines. Daniel M. Cohen, (writer/director) is the award winning director of “Diamond Men,” starring Robert Forster and Donnie Wahlberg. “Diamond Men,” is the winner of a National Board of Review award for ‘excellence in filmmaking.” It also received the coveted “two big thumbs up,” from Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper. Director’s Statement “Ted’s MBA* (*many brief affairs) is about how one or two wrong turns can mess up a comfortable life, on numerous levels. I think that most men, especially young men, are destined to stumble into the wrong places. All it takes is the right encouragement. They’re also brilliant at devising cockeyed rationales that keep them there. Ted Meyers is cheerfully aware of the slippery ethics that pervade his working environment. His ready wit and sense of irony remain fully intact from first to last. But he’s a little too willing to please, even when his motivation is largely selfless. This, combined with middling self esteem and small town naivete make him an ideal candidate for a slick corporate set up. Review by Jeff Farance: 4 ½ (of 5 stars) Dan Cohen, whose ``Diamond Men’’ was a Cinematique hit, again upends the world of commerce in ``Corporate Affairs.’’ Breckin Meyer plays Ted, who’s promoted beyond his dreams, and certainly beyond his training or experience. But he’s a quick thinker who solves corporate glitches as fast as his inept colleagues can create them around him. His computer work requires extensive travel, which leads to on-the-road trysts, unbeknownst to his wife. The software he’s servicing is a house of cards. So is his personal life. Each time they start to tumble down, he reshuffles and emerges the victor. But how long can he juggle all of these conflicts without imploding? Writer/director Cohen masters sarcastic wit just as Ted earns his master’s on the road to oblivion.