Widescreen: The invention of first smartphone on the big screen; Nolan's first movie
Somehow, corporate biopics are all the rage this year.
First there was "Air," Ben Affleck's cringe-inducing exaltation of the guy who came up with Air Jordans (Matt Damon was awfully good, though). Then came "Tetris," in which Taron Egerton's quest to acquire the U.S. publishing rights to the famous Russian video game becomes an over-the-top spy thriller. Now comes "BlackBerry," which is back on the suburban big screen next week after a limited theatrical run in the spring.
Boasting an Oscar-buzzing performance by "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" star Glenn Howerton, "BlackBerry" chronicles the invention of the first smartphone in funny fashion, funny enough to earn an eye-popping 98% critic approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. (Not even "Barbie" or "Oppenheimer" can match that.) It will play at 7:30 p.m. Monday, July 31, at the Tivoli Theatre, 5021 Highland Ave., Downers Grove, as part of After Hours Film Society programming. Tickets cost $11, $7 for AFHS members, and are available online at classiccinemas.com.
If you want to watch at home, "BlackBerry" is available for digital rental and purchase from Vudu, iTunes and similar platforms. (Oh, and "Air"? That's on Amazon Prime Video. And "Tetris" is on Hulu.)
Christopher Nolan's first film
... was not "Memento," the 2000 mind-bender starring Guy Pearce as a sleuth with short-term memory loss, but that was the movie that put the "Oppenheimer" auteur on film fans' radars.
His first release was 1998's "Following," a 70-minute, black-and-white thriller with a no-name cast and no budget. What it does have, even then, are Nolan's penchants for non-linear storytelling and pervasive, percussive music. (It also has a funny sign of things to come for the director in the form of a Batman sticker on a character's front door.)
"Following," which takes its name from young writer Bill's (Jeremy Theobald) habit of following strangers around London, is streaming for free on Tubi with limited ad breaks.
• Sean Stangland is an assistant news editor who hopes Hollywood's main take-away from the "Barbenheimer" craze is that studios should pay their writers and actors.