Don't Forget: Dallas Native Stephen Tobolowsky Will Host Special Memento Screening at USA Film Fest

With credits that include Freaky Friday, Silicon Valley, Deadwood, The Mindy Project and Basic Instinct among many others, Stephen Tobolowsky is one of the greatest character actors ever. The Dallas-born actor has been a familiar face in film and television for over four decades and hasn’t slowed down as he continues to add credits to his growing filmography. Still, Tobolowsky has often been gracious in sharing his time with DFW’s film fans and frequently attends local screenings and festivals.

Those who have yet to attend one of Tobolowsky’s lively Q&A sessions will have the chance to get a tremendous first impression, as he is set to host a 25th anniversary screening of Memento at the Angelika Film Center on Wednesday, April 23, as part of the USA Film Festival. While acclaimed at its initial release, Memento’s legacy has grown more prominent in the years since, particularly due to the sustained success of its writer/director, Christopher Nolan.

A noir thriller like no other, Memento is centered on the mysterious insurance investigator Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce), who travels throughout the criminal underworld of Los Angeles in search of his wife’s killers. Because of his diagnosis of anterograde amnesia, Leonard is unable to form new memories and thus must leave clues for himself to continue pursuing the case. Despite a budget of less than $10 million, Memento was able to craft an enticing mystery through its creative editing decisions and multifaceted screenplay, both of which earned Academy Award nominations.

While he would go on to become one of the most successful filmmakers in history, Nolan was still an unknown at the time that Memento went into production, as his debut feature, Following, had received a limited theatrical rollout after debuting at select festivals in 1998. While Memento had the benefit of some established stars, including Carrie-Anne Moss and Joe Pantoliano, the film became a surprise hit as a result of word-of-mouth buzz. After rapturous reviews at the Venice International Film Festival, Memento initiated a clever marketing campaign centered on the shocking twists and turns. Like classics like The Usual Suspects and The Sixth Sense, Memento demanded that audiences see it to learn about the twist ending before getting spoiled.

Memento’s reputation grew thanks to the dedicated Internet fans who became obsessed with solving each latent mystery that Nolan and his brother Jonathan had intertwined within the script. With online chat rooms beginning to emerge for movie-centric discussions, Memento grew a passionate fan base of sleuths, many of whom scoured through digital copies of the film to record their own screenshots.

One ambitious fan even created their own edit of the film, in which the scenes are presented chronologically to avoid confusion over flashbacks. While not as narratively satisfying as the theatrical cut, this fan edit of Memento became essential viewing for those who had already seen the film countless times.

Tobolowsky’s performance is a critical component in the film’s lasting power, as he appears within key flashback sequences as the mysterious Sammy Jankis, an acquaintance of Leonard’s who suffered from the same condition. Although Leonard had once turned down Sammy’s insurance request, it was a decision that he would ultimately regret upon recognizing that there was no deceit involved; since Sammy was unable to form new memories, he accidentally gave his wife a lethal overdose of her insurance medication.

Tobolowsky’s kind, childlike nature in these sequences was the perfect way to define the film's stakes and emphasize the reality that those living with amnesia had. The stark, black-and-white flashbacks scenes have a chilling aura, leading to an emotional gut punch that transforms the audience’s perception of what Leonard is going through. Critics of Nolan have occasionally accused the filmmaker of valuing spectacle over substance, but Memento was proof that his films could intertwine compelling character drama with their thought-provoking narrative twists.

Tobolowsky’s scenes in the film were acclaimed not only by critics but also by legitimate scientific researchers; a director at the Integrative Neural Immune Program at the National Institute of Mental Health claimed that Memento was "close to a perfect exploration of the neurobiology of memory.” The storyline involving Sammy repeating daily tasks without any recognition of the stagnated cycle was described as a visualization that “keeps reverberating in the viewer's mind,” as “each iteration makes one examine preconceived notions in a different light.” 

While the average Letterboxd user may not be concerned about how accurate the film’s science was, Nolan won points by using Tobolowsky’s touching performance to portray intellectual disabilities more empathetically. Given the ongoing discussions about how characters with disabilities are depicted and represented on screen, Memento has stood the test of time as an earnest, respectful interpretation that sought to understand the community it depicted truly.

Memento may be the most acclaimed film that Tobolowsky has ever appeared in, but listing the sheer number of classics he’s been a part of is no easy task. Tobolowsky is perhaps best known for his iconic performance as Ned Bryerson in Groundhog Day, as he’s one of the few actors who managed to steal a scene away from Bill Murray. He also had a memorable role as the ill-tempered teacher Mr. Elton Bates in Freaky Friday. He is set to reprise his role this summer alongside Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis in the hotly anticipated sequel Freakier Friday.

Tobolowsky has been a regular at the USA Film Festival, having appeared in 2016 for the debut of the independent romantic dramedy Guys and Girls Can’t Be Friends. Impressively, he has continued to expand his resume in the last decade; in addition to authoring several books and appearing on stage for a Los Angeles production of Angela J. Davis' The Spanish Prayer Book, Tobolowsky recorded the podcast The Tobolowsky Files to provide insights on his career. Memento may be a footnote on his catalogue of career highlights, but it will not be easily forgotten.