BlackBerry (2023)

Smith’s Verdict: ****
Reviewed by Tanner Smith

One of the most entertaining films I’ve seen in 2023…is a film about the invention of the first smartphone.

Doesn’t sound so interesting or entertaining, but…

I was hooked on seeing “BlackBerry” simply because it’s the latest film from auteur filmmaker Matt Johnson. His first feature The Dirties is one of my personal favorite films, I also really liked his second film Operation Avalanche, and I also admired his Viceland series Nirvanna the Band the Show–I will see ANYTHING that he does, even if it’s about the creation of the BlackBerry.

This isn’t another film about what corporate greed and hubris do to a creative, idealistic person, nor is it a film that encourages us to demand to take back the BlackBerry phone. (And you wouldn’t want to give up your iPhone, would you?) It’s a film about someone who has a great idea that changes the way we communicate in the world…until someone else (let’s call him Steve Jobs) comes up with a better idea. And it can be taken any way you want it, whether it’s about how the characters went about it, or the little things they overlooked in making it, or even WHY they wanted to do it in the first place, or whatever.

Johnson avoids his trademark faux-documentary approach and instead gives us a fly-on-the-wall technique, with his usual cinematographer Jared Raab shooting the proceedings like a docudrama. But he’s such a movie buff, I wouldn’t doubt he simply wanted to make his own biopic along the lines as “The Social Network” or “All the President’s Men.” And because he’s so good at grabbing an audience with his vision, “BlackBerry” hooked me and wouldn’t let me go until the end…actually, not even the end, because I’ve seen this film at least five other times since.

Jay Baruchel stars as Mike Lazaridis, the awkward but brilliant co-founder of the Canadian software company Research In Motion. (Johnson, who always appears in his own films, co-stars as Doug Fregin, the goofy man-child co-founder of the company.) RIM (as it’s abbreviated) is going out of business, but in comes Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton), a ruthless businessman. He was fired from another tech company for stealing a coworker’s presentation–at that point, the moviegoer sitting next to me muttered, “Dick!”–and is willing to take Mike’s idea of a BlackBerry mobile device seriously if it means big money.

Well, it DOES mean big money…but for how long? And I was expecting “BlackBerry” to be a cautionary tale about what greed and pride do to people–instead, it’s more about a great idea that stays a great idea…until someone comes up with a better idea. And how it affects these characters was what kept me engaged throughout the back half of the film.

Jay Baruchel and Matt Johnson are both great as the hopeful entrepreneurs who find themselves in over their heads and in danger of losing their souls in the process. But it’s Glenn Howerton who practically steals the film from everyone he shares the screen with. This guy has so much fun showing the ruthless and reckless natures of this character, who is such a jerk and pretty much a megalomaniac–and he’s never boring; I always looked forward to seeing what he would do next!

“BlackBerry” has a great amount of energy to it, from the documentary-like camerawork to moments that show how the geek-culture unwinds (such as playing/dancing to “Return of the Mack” to celebrate a victory or having “emergency movie night” in the office when things don’t go as planned).

There’s just such a great energy and ambition to this film (from a filmmaker whose last two films were already energetic and ambitious) that I embrace wholeheartedly. I loved “BlackBerry” from beginning to end.