Film by Ned Crowley ’85 Opens in Theaters Across Country

“Middle Man,” a dark comedy, features “Parks and Recreation” star Jim O’Heir

After making its way through the 2016 film festival circuit, “Middle Man,” a dark comedy written and directed by Ned Crowley ’85 and starring “Parks and Recreation” star Jim O’Heir, has opened in theaters across the country.

Crowley’s film tells the story of Lenny Freeman, an unfunny accountant played by O’Heir, who heads to Las Vegas with the dream of becoming a stand-up comedian. After picking up a mysterious hitchhiker, Lenny gets caught up in a killing spree and, with each bizarre and dark twist, becomes funnier an funnier.

“In more careless hands, ‘Middle Man’s’ deranged farce could have resulted in an unchecked, undisciplined movie with nothing to say,” a reviewer wrote in the Seattle Times. “But beneath the roller-coaster madness here is an earthbound terror that art is meant to reveal.”

“Middle Man” premiered at film festivals including the Portland Film Festival, the Chicago International Film Festival, and the Seattle International Film Festival where it won the Grand Jury prize in the “New American Cinema Competition.”

This is the first film written and directed by Crowley, who was an economics and accounting major at Holy Cross.