Always Good Movies

Direction: Matt Johnson
Country: USA

Matt Johnson’s biopic about celebrity chef and author Anthony Bourdain is neither superb nor particularly special, but rather a quite honest and comforting work. This real-life ballad delivered in a minor key begins with a lump in the throat and ends with a smile, pairing Dominic Sessa and Antonio Banderas as Bourdain and the quiet “chef” José Vatel, respectively, in 1975 Provincetown, Massachusetts. The film focuses not only on their boss-employee-turned-partnership relationship but also on the complicated romance between Bourdain and Nancy Putkowski (Emilia Jones).

Avoiding pathos and sentimentality, Johnson succeeds with an understated stylistic exercise that manages to blend a certain acerbic tone with a delicacy that is never feigned. Tony rightly entertains at a pleasantly superficial level. More than a technical feat, it’s a strong story with adequate dramatic power.

Direction: Matt Johnson
Country: USA

BlackBerry is a well-told true story about the meteoric rise and precipitous fall of the Canadian brand that brought the first smartphone into the world. Director Matt Johnson, whose staple is also starring in his own films (The Dirties, 2013; Operation Avalanche, 2016), assembles a gripping biographical tech-thriller with refreshingly witty passages and character-driven fortitude as its most entertaining values.

Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel), a brilliant if shy software developer, and his more confrontational business partner and best friend, Doug Fregin (Johnson), hire the ambitious entrepreneur Jim Balsille (Glenn Howerton in his best) for their company Research in Motion. The latter is an aggressive negotiator who may grab you by the throat and beat you about the head without ever lifting his feet from the desk. Intense and fast-moving, this thriller portraits their high demands for data as a matter of life and death.

Even if you’re not tech savvy, Johnson puts it all in fascinating context. Aiming for greatness and not quite making it, he, nonetheless, discloses a vital, engaging part of technology history while guaranteeing absolute fun by effectively mixing serious and comedic tones. The rules of this tech business game are questioned in a last part tinged with bitterness. The acting, staging, editing, soundtrack, and direction are handled with competence.