You are more than likely to read this review on your phone. And that as soon as you had a smartphone, you searched for sites like this that reflect your personal interests. You probably don’t even think about how this process came about since it is now a natural part of life. Would you like to see a film about it? Theoretically maybe not, especially when it’s meticulously fact-based and mostly involves marketing meetings. In blackberryHowever, writer-director-actor Matt Johnson (The Dirties), a film about the first mass-produced smartphone, makes it clear up front that he was doing a fictional retelling. Basically, it’s like a sketch version of “Kids in the Hall” set in the real, but fake-sounding, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
You are more than likely to read this review on your phone. And that as soon as you had a smartphone, you searched for sites like this that reflect your personal interests. You probably don’t even think about how this process came about since it is now a natural part of life. Would you like to see a film about it? Theoretically maybe not, especially when it’s meticulously fact-based and mostly involves marketing meetings. In blackberryHowever, writer-director-actor Matt Johnson (The Dirties), a film about the first mass-produced smartphone, makes it clear up front that he was doing a fictional retelling. Basically, it’s like a sketch version of “Kids in the Hall” set in the real, but fake-sounding, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
Since Johnson’s previous work has been mostly found footage and mockumentary, mixing truth and fiction is nothing new to him. For those who might be expecting a true story that’s “stranger than fiction,” here’s a quick corrective: BlackBerry inventor Mike Lazaridis, a Greek immigrant described by the Canadian Globe and Mail A “burly, friendly-looking fellow with shaggy silver hair and an affable if overly confident manner,” he looks nothing like actor Jay Baruchel with declining white wigs and the body language of a frightened rabbit. And the BlackBerry wasn’t actually named after a jelly stain on his shirt.
Aside from the IFC’s somewhat confused marketing on the subject, the film seems a little more true than Weird Al’s biography, but a lot less than The Social Network. It’s less about documenting an actual product development process and more about providing a parable of nerds colliding headlong with murderous capitalism. This is arguably the defining struggle of pop culture for the last 20 years.
Mike and Doug’s excellent suggestion
Mike Lazaridis (Baruchel) and Doug Fregin (director Johnson) in the film are old-school nerds, as in Revenge of the Dead, who seem to have an ideal deal around 1996. They sell modems for fat contracts and their handful of them. During working hours, the employees usually play Wolfenstein or argue on Star Trek fan forums. Mike is the quiet genius, while Doug evokes Judah Friedlander’s more aggressive personality with his loud mouth, ubiquitous headband and ill-styled t-shirts. Neither is particularly good at pitching their latest idea, an all-in-one device that combines a phone, pager, and email terminal into one pocket-sized device.
After an embarrassing presentation fails in front of humorless CEO Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton), Balsillie is fired herself, but is interested enough in the product to convince Mike and Doug to take over RIM (Research in Motion), a company with the odd name to offer. Mike negotiates him during a televised hockey game and gets him to agree to them becoming co-CEOs, and the fun starts from there. At least in this story. Introverted Mike has all the intelligence and monomaniac focus on making the best product. Hockey fan Jim is a cheeky entrepreneurial dude who’s never seen Star Wars but probably knows Glengarry Glenn Ross by heart. In between is Doug, who considers himself the hero of every underdog movie, when actually he’s more of a comic book substitute in real life — as far as you can call “real life,” anyway.
cameos? As you wish…
Mike and Doug’s group of brilliant jerks love their movie nights, which makes some of the stunt casting here a sly hoax. Cary Elwes emerges as Palm Pilot’s CEO and threatens a hostile takeover, making him something of a feared corporate pirate. Michael Ironside in his heavy suit looks like Burl Ives, playing the kingpin in his role as corporate disciplinarian. Needless to say, the BlackBerry team is one of the biggest fans of Elwes and Ironside; If you’re the target audience for this film, you know it. Balsillie, whose name obviously comes off as a cheap joke, thinks the pronunciation of the name covers the appropriate range. When he takes risks and builds up, he insists it be pronounced “BALLS-ly.” Later, when the company goes under, it becomes “Ball-SILLY”.
In fact, neither Mike nor Jim got off badly, which so often happens to the rich. The rise and fall arc fits the movie formula, but here it’s more of a glee generator. Of course, in hindsight, Mike’s fixation on a keyboard seems pointlessly short-sighted, and Jim’s attempt to buy an American NHL team and move it to Canada is insane. The unspoken truism is that these are the kind of people we are all ultimately subject to, and once they can get rid of the classic, socially awkward nerds, they will.
nerd vana? Doesn’t matter.
These days, everyone from Chris Hardwick to Dwayne Johnson is a self-proclaimed “nerd,” often due to the fact that as a kid, they watched all the other Saturday morning cartoons and played with Star Wars characters. BlackBerry transports us to a time when it meant something else, and the people who briefly fit the label seemed on a permanent upswing. Instead, they were co-opted, as the nouveau riche are. This may be an imaginary retelling, but it also feels like a pointed warning. As much as you love your job, it doesn’t love you back when there’s even the slightest chance it can be more profitable without you. The real Mike Lazaridis seems to understand that and always makes time for his wife and children, whose existence the film doesn’t even acknowledge.
As a director, Johnson likes to make audiences uncomfortable, but by playing Doug with a combination of goofy heists and genuine passion, he shows that you can laugh at and with the characters on screen. After all, the real ones laughed right up to their fat severance checks.
Rating: 7/10
As explained in ComingSoon’s Rating Guidelines, a rating of 7 equals Good. A successful entertainment that is worth a visit, but may not please everyone.