Blackberry – Film Review - Technological Film wih Lots of Yelling

IFC Films’ <i>Blackberry</i> Film Review

Release Date: Friday, May 12, 2023

Reviewer Rating: 3 of 5 Stars ★★★★★

In the early 90s, long before the iPhone was a household name, there was a technological race to merge a cell phone and an email system into one device. Its winner, the Blackberry.

Based on Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff’s book “Losing the Signal,” the film’s written and directed by Matt Johnson, who also co-stars in the film. Blackberry is the story of how Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel) and his Canadian-based electronics company, Research in Motion (RIM), crossed the finish line first to become the original creator of the smartphone. Johnson portrays Douglas Fregin, co-founder of RIM.

While millions in the early 2000s had their thumbs figuratively glued to their Blackberry, I wasn’t one of them, Instead, I thought I was cool with having a portable email terminal called Mailstation. It wasn’t until the launch of the iPhone in 2007 did I hop on the smartphone bandwagon. Screening the film, I wondered if Johnson’s movie would hold my attention. Thankfully, he does a fine job with it and had me wanting to learn more.

While the focus of the film is technology and eventually the Blackberry, the heart of the movie is Lazaridis’ friendship with Fregin. As their product gets closer to development, their friendship is upended when the bombastic philanthropist and businessman Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton) is brought in. Jim’s focus is to launch the product ahead of its competitors using any means possible.

Hair and makeup, or lack thereof, do a wonderful job as both Howerton and Baruchel are unrecognizable in the film. Howerton even went so far as to shave his head for the role.

Much of Blackberry focuses on the ups and downs of the pair’s unlikely alliance. Lazaridis is the brains and Balsillie is the workhorse getting people to invest and buy into the smartphone. Despite being at odds throughout much of the film, they realize they’d never achieve this level of success without each other.

Johnson uses what seems like a documentary style of filmmaking for Blackberry that makes you believe the actors are their actual characters.

From John Lee Hancock’s film The Founder, about the story of McDonald’s, to Ben Affleck’s Air Jordan movie Air there’s there’s an audience for origin stories of some mundane things. I think it’s human nature to be curious about learning how ordinary people go on to create amazing things.

Despite having reservations for a movie about a product I had zero emotional investment in, I enjoyed Blackberry. My biggest gripe is I wish it had been a series rather than a film. Secondary characters like Palm CEO Carl Yankowski (Cary Elwes) and programmer Paul Stannos (Rich Sommer) are given little screen time; I would have appreciated seeing their stories fleshed out better.

You don’t have to be tech-savvy or even a smartphone user to enjoy Blackberry. While I’m not sure the film warrants racing to the theaters, it’s worth checking out once it arrives on a streaming platform.

Blackberry is In Theaters now.

For more on the film, go to https://www.ifcfilms.com/films/blackberry

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Greg Staffa

I provide testosterone to the site. You won’t be reading about how nice a actress looks in a dress or how much of a hunk Matt Bomer is in my reviews. I describe colors using words like brown, not taupe. My twitter name is @staffaroadtrip because I love road trips and have done two different 48-state road trips since 2008. My favorite show is White Collar.