Thomas Haden Church and Dennis Quaid deliver solid performances in Smart People. Photo courtesy of Miramax.

While you’ve probably heard of the cast of Smart People - Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ellen Page - you may be less aware of, er, Smart People. It’s not a film that lends itself to novelty cardboard stand-ups (like Prom Night), viral trailers (Indiana Jones), or towering billboards (Prince Caspian). And unlike most quirky low-budget indie films in its league, it’s not being released in November or December as Oscar bait.

But it made a fair impression at Sundance and now it’s gone into wide release, including five show times daily at Century 12 Evanston—not bad for a film with a $7 million budget. It’s well worth your time. Here’s a few reasons why:

1. Because you really, really loathed that one professor.

Smart People is the story of Lawrence Weatherhold (Quaid), a Carnegie Mellon English professor who wallows in pomposity and loathing. He screws over his students regularly, ditching office hours, embarrassing them in class, and lambasting their papers with awful grades. (You know—that one. Everyone’s had one.) He’s grown distant from his kids, he pines after his lost wife, and he takes out his bitterness on everyone else around him.

We get to see Weatherhold struggle through the painful life lessons that he so richly deserves. The appearance of his unsavory freeloading brother starts to batter at his stiff defenses. Students get their various revenges—feel free to live vicariously through them, replacing Quaid’s face with your professor’s.

2. Because it’s one of the funniest movies in a while.

I doubt you’ll see packed theaters disintegrate into horrified hysterics at a Smart People showing, as it was with Borat. The humor here is less acerbic and more subdued, but spot-on and constant. Thomas Haden Church isn’t quite as wacky as he was in Sideways, but he’s got the biggest laugh lines as the slacker brother/uncle. River East, where I saw my prescreening, was chortling throughout, with a few belly laughs reserved for the best moments.

3. Because you liked Ellen Page in Juno, but hated the faux-hipster dialogue.

This was the common complaint with Juno: Humor, brilliant characterization, and Oscar aside, Diablo Cody utterly failed to capture trendy youth-speak. What saved it for me was the delivery of Page, who somehow managed to make the most ridiculous lines completely believable for her character. A brilliant young actress, Page is on her way to superstardom. She was terrifying as a freakish cross between Lolita and Annie Wilkes in Hard Candy, and even shone as geek icon Kitty Pride in X-Men: The Last Stand.

In Smart People, Page plays Weatherhold’s daughter Vanessa, who is half-Juno MacGuff and half, well, not. Vanessa is acidic, obsessed with perfection, and hangs with the Young Republicans. Like Juno, she approaches life with a jarring, straight-faced candor and she’s extremely intelligent. But Vanessa reflects her father, pushing people away from her with self-destructive OCD — which Page projects as perfectly as ever.

4. Because of Sarah Jessica Parker.

This shouldn’t need much explanation. Parker gives the least convincing performance in the movie, and it’s hard to understand exactly why a medical professional wants anything to do with a nasty, self-absorbed ex-professor in the first place. But c’mon, people, it’s Sarah Jessica Parker. I mean, it wasn’t my kind of thing, but Sex and the City had legions of fans. And plus, with the SatC movie coming in two months, you could think of Smart People as a warm-up.

5. Because you could really use the indie cred.

Alright, maybe you saw Little Miss Sunshine in 2006 or Juno, but flicks with Oscar buzz don’t count. And if your spring film list consists purely of Indiana Jones and Iron Man (both of which, don’t get me wrong, I am very, very excited about), you’re missing out. The dark days of January and February are over, people! It’s time to come out of film hibernation and get your feet wet in a strong, short, intelligent, funny romantic comedy. It’s a great date movie (particularly if your date isn’t pumped about Prom Night, which had a truly abysmal trailer) or just for an hour and a half of stress relief. See this one, Northwestern. You won’t regret it.

In the spirit of fairness, I will offer one reason why you might not head for Smart People in the theater:

1. Thomas Haden Church in assless chaps.

The choice is yours.

Official Rating: A-