For a minute, it looked like BlackBerry might control the smartphone market. They got there first, figuring out how to use the existing data network to put email in the hands of users. Sure, it all came packed into a device as thick and unwieldy as a slice of French bread, too big for most people's pockets, not at all comfortable to hold near your ear. Still, Canada-based electronics company Research in Motion revolutionized how cell phones work and what they could do, making their co-founders billionaires. So what happened?
Frantic, irreverent, and endearingly scrappy, “BlackBerry” spins comedy from the seat of its pants and the subsequent shutdown of “that phone people had before they bought an iPhone,” as one character puts it. Directed by Matt Johnson, the renegade mockumentary director responsible for the 2013 Slamdance winner "The Dirties" and the "Project Avalanche" moon landing hoax, from a script he co-wrote with his longtime collaborator Matthew Miller, this wily Satire of the world of technology loosely extrapolates from journalists Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff's book "Losing the Signal," recasting that wild ride into something that approximates their favorite movies.
Director: Matt Johnson
Writers: Matt Johnson, Jacquie McNish, Matthew Miller
Stars: Jay Baruchel, Glenn Howerton, Matt Johnson
The outrageous, often quotable dialogue draws inspiration from Aaron Sorkin and David Mamet. “I'll keep shooting until this room isn't full of little kids playing with their little penises,” Michael Ironside snarls at one point, playing the company's bulldog COO, apparently the only adult in the room. Later, forced to use a payphone after BlackBerry overloaded the network, Glenn Howerton smashes the receiver to pieces as he yells, “There are three reasons why people buy our phones. … They. Damned. Work!" Lines like that fit well with cinematographer Jared Raab's grotesque, portable style, which suggests a cross between "The Office" and "In the Loop," taken from across the parking lots and the other side from crowded workspaces.
No one would mistake it for a documentary, and yet Johnson embraces voyeuristic cues that give audiences the feeling that you're there. If the cast Johnson has assembled barely seems old enough to remember the BlackBerry, that perversely ends up working to the benefit of the film. Canadian actor Jay Baruchel still has the soft-chinned face of a teenager, making him an odd choice to play BlackBerry super-brain Mike Lazaridis, with his Julian Assange-esque silver hair. Johnson opts to play RIM co-founder Douglas Fregin as a headband-wearing drifter, a brilliant "goofball" (and reliable comedic foil) who seems to care more about working with his friends than becoming a man. multimillionaire.
And then there's "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" star Howerton, the MVP in a terrific full ensemble, who shaved the top of his head to play Jim Balsillie, who's going bald and doesn't make sense. . Like a shark in a wading pool, Howerton delivers the kind of acting that can either make a career or force audiences to completely reconsider an actor's potential. Jim's ruthless business instincts go directly against the undisciplined approach of the nerds. He agrees to quit his job and lead RIM to deliver on its promise - the one Mike and Doug tried to articulate in the film's messy opening pitch session, quoting their high school shop teacher: "The person who puts a computer inside a phone will change." the world."
Riding around in a beat-up Honda hatchback, the duo, and the rest of the RIM team, look like little kids, unable to clean their own rooms. They're too rowdy and immature to focus on the task at hand, wasting valuable time playing Command & Conquer in the office, where lots of faulty modems line the walls and someone stuck a plunger on top of a computer monitor. computer. Rarely has a movie captured the spirit of creative chaos that characterizes much of Silicon Valley, though it's important to note that RIM's rise and fall trajectory took place half a continent away in Waterloo, Ontario.
This is a Canadian story, told by Canadian filmmakers, who treat the whole crazy thing as a matter of national pride. Sure, it's full of arrogance, from Mike's incredulity that consumers would prefer a device without a keyboard to Jim's illegal strategy of rolling back options.
Watch BlackBerry 2023 Movie Trailer
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