Comedy isn’t just about making us laugh. As Moliere observed, “The duty of comedy is to improve people by amusing them.” This brings us to “Tough Crowd,” a short Apple-sponsored film directed by George Nolfi. Apple’s purpose was to show off the iPhone 11 Pro, with its ultra-wide angle lens and other new features.   The director, known for “The Adjustment Bureau,” used the opportunity to craft a dialogue-free 90-second comedy. Like many classics in the genre, this one makes fun of something we ordinarily take seriously. There is a casting twist, but revealing it would spoil the fun. So click the play button and enjoy the movie.

In a CNET interview, Nolfi said, “It was a lot of fun shooting a project on a phone knowing I had three lenses to choose from. It felt like a hybrid production, possessing the advantages of a phone yet with some of the key creative tools of traditional studio filmmaking.”

The editors of MobileMovieMaking selected “Tough Crowd” as a Mobile Movie of the Week.