BlackBerry - Movie Review

Critics Score - 8 of 10

General Audience Score - 8 of 10

For anyone older than the age of say, twenty-five, the word blackberry is synonymous with a handheld smartphone style device, popular at the start of this century. While most models contained a full keyboard, it was the first device that allowed for cellular calls but also the additional feature of emailing from a handheld device, a novel idea for the early 2000’s. The new film from IFC of the same name, BlackBerry, is a Canadian film based on the Canadian company and tells the story of the device’s rise to incredible fame and success and eventually it’s equally fascinating catastrophic demise. While many films have followed, or attempted to follow in the footsteps of The Social Network, a perfect piece of cinema that portrays the early stages of a successful business idea or enterprise, very few films can hold a candle to it. BlackBerry might not quite reach the same grandeur, no snappy Sorkin dialogue or precision direction from Fincher, but this film does a better job of capturing the essence of the “how a brand got it’s start” movie better than any film I’ve seen in quite a while. It stays kinetic and even quite hilarious at times as it introduces us to the key players in the cell phone game of the early 2000’s. We’ve gotten two other films based on revolutionary brand ideas already this year, but this one, well, it’s more thrilling of a game than Tetris, it’s highs go higher than Air, so go get a taste of BlackBerry.

SYNOPSIS - As it opens, we read some text informing us that we’re seeing a portrayal of real people and events that happened in Waterloo, Canada, then we see a black and white video of a man from decades ago who speaks about the advancements in the area of communication. The man continues to speak about the world shrinking and men conducting their business from Tahiti as the scene changes and we watch two different men, Mike (Jay Baruchel) and Jim (Glenn Howerton), as they enjoy their separate drives into their respective jobs. Mike is a slender, younger looking man but with almost completely grayed hair while Jim is the professional business man type, bald, but he carries himself with the stern and focused demeanor of a CEO. Mike arrives at what turns out to be a presentation/product pitch along with his friend, business partner and also the driver of the tiny Honda hatchback they arrived in, Doug (Matt Johnson), who’s listening to some heavy metal music. Doug is a hippie looking fellow with long curly hair who is almost always donning a sports headband and t-shirt with a 80’s logo. Mike and Doug grab some poster boards for their prototype mobile device called Pocketlink and head into their meeting in Jim’s office, one wall of which is covered in tribal head masks. Jim is the type of character that Mike and Doug later refer to as a “shark”, but he’s in a different office, meeting with his boss and making a play for a head management position for a new division his company might be starting.

Meanwhile, Mike and Doug are waiting for their meeting to start. Mike hears a buzzing noise coming from an intercom unit in the room and hastily decides to take it apart and repair it, which he does successfully, thus setting up his character as the tech savvy but soft spoken, nerd type. When Jim finally gets back to his office and joins Mike and Doug, he listens to their pitch for a minute but it’s clear after he interrupts them to take a phone call that this shark has other, bigger fish on his mind. The meeting ends unceremoniously with Jim telling them that they don’t do anything like that at his company, but comments decisively on his way out the door, “And you need a better name”. Doug and Mike return to their company, Research In Motion (RIM), where they inform their video game playing laid back crew that the phone pitch didn’t go well. But later on after some setbacks on Jim’s push to be a new manager, he goes to see Doug and Mike at RIM and offers to pay them $20k if they give him half the company and make him CEO. This sequence is pivotal as it highlights the relationship dynamics between the slick suited, order barking, all business Jim and the rag tag, nerdy bunch of movie watching RIM employees. It is hilarious and a fantastic premise the movie’s screenplay teases us with. The film doesn’t wait long before making good on that promise and later that night Mike calls Jim at home with a counter offer, which he accepts, and they go into business together as co-CEO’s. Jim immediately starts trying to market the phone and before long, both their company and we the viewer are off to the races.

Blackberry’s screenplay is a real highlight of the film, although it lacks the rapid fire Sorkin dialogue as I mentioned earlier, it does excel at utilizing the characters, exploiting deadlines to create a sense of urgency and taking an interesting progression of events and making them flow rapidly throughout its runtime. This combined with a tight directorial effort by Matt Johnson (yes, the same Matt Johnson I mentioned earlier who plays Doug), the two hour runtime breezes by with no thought of this film overstaying it’s welcome. There’s also some interesting editing work on display, one extended pan in shot after a statement about male office employees genitals was an absolutely wild and almost confusing editing decision, like something the Office TV show would do to Pam sometimes, but I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. This also helped the film juggle a dual natured tone of the more serious Social Network vibe and a lighter touch with humorous moments, which lent into the ending where the BlackBerry empire begins to crash and burn. On the performance side, Jay Baruchel in his gray wig and Glenn Howerton with his seamless balding head, (I couldn’t believe in real life he’s got a full head of hair), as these two nerd and shark co-CEO’s are delivering spot on performances, they assist greatly in raising the movie’s intrigue. Along with some of the needle drop songs the film utilizes, BlackBerry is a absolute banger of a fun time at the movies and will inevitably end up among the best of the year.

SUMMARY - This film is a crowd pleaser, one that general audiences, cinephiles and critics can all equally enjoy and is easily one of the best films I’ve seen yet in 2023. The quick pace and compelling story takes this film into the upper tier of brand movies following in the pattern of The Social Network. Its theatrical run is winding down, but when it comes to video on demand, make it a point to check out the new jam, BlackBerry.