BlackBerry Review

Like with 2022 and its various Pinocchio films, a strange trend that’s being seen in 2023 films are movies about a product, namely the making of one. First, there’s Tetris, which is about the race to license and patent the eponymous game from Russia in the late 1980s. Then, there’s Air, a film about the making of the Air Jordan sneakers, which features an incredibly talented cast, including Matt Damon, Ben Affeck, Jason Bateman, and Viola Davis. And there is currently a movie on Disney Plus about the creation of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos called, what else, Flamin’ Hot. But if there was one movie that had to be the best of the bunch, it would be BlackBerry. The BlackBerry was once one of the most popular cell phones in the world before it was rendered obsolete with the rise of smartphones such as the iPhone. It’s directed by Matt Johnson (best known for his found footage thriller film The Dirties) and adapted from the book Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of the BlackBerry. And Johnson creates an incredibly engaging and entertaining film about a piece of nerd history that’s one of the biggest surprises of the year.

Taking place between 1996 and 2008, the film follows Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel) the CEO of the software start up Research in Motion (RiM), who, alongside his friend and RiM co-founder Douglas Fregin (Matt Johnson), partners with businessman Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton). With Lazaridis’s technical know-how and Balsillie’s understanding of boardroom politics and ability to sell, the pair create and market the BlackBerry, a self-described “cellphone and email machine” that soon takes the world by storm. With Research in Motion becoming bigger and more corporate over time, Lazaridis and Balsillie face several hurdles and roadblocks, such as the threat of a buyout from Palm CEO Carl Yankowski (Cary Elwes). However, the beginning of the end of the BlackBerry comes with the announcement of the iPhone, and Lazaridis and Balsillie find themselves struggling to survive against both the competition as well as legal problems as the good times come to an end.

Extraordinary performances from Baruchel and Howerton.

What makes BlackBerry work so well is its cast and the performances. In contrast to the star-studded cast of Air, the cast of BlackBerry is made up of underappreciated talent as well as some fantastic character actors like Saul Rubinek and Michael Ironside. But what grounds the movie is the two lead performances of Jay Baruchel and Glenn Howerton. Baruchel is an actor who has made himself known for various comedies throughout the late 2000s and early 2010s such as Tropic Thunder, Knocked Up, Fanboys, and This Is the End. Howerton, on the other hand, is best known for his role of Dennis Reynolds on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, being an incredible yet underrated talent. And both of them are utterly fantastic and hilarious in their respective roles. What Baruchel does particularly well is sell Lazaridis’s change over time, starting off as a socially awkward nerd who needs to be coached to go through with business interactions, and slowly becomes more businessman like over time. In contrast, Howerton is an absolute force of nature in this role with a real commanding presence. His performance is almost comparable to that of Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street (only without the sleaze and hedonism). One thing that Howerton is particularly great at portraying is anger and rage and combines that here with a sharp and sharklike business acumen. Baruchel and Howerton bounce off each other well, best highlighted in a scene where Balsillie rages at Lazaridis over the phone after the Verizon network that BlackBerry uses crashes and screams at him to resolve it.

And in a supporting role is writer-director Matt Johnson as Douglas Fregin, the cofounder of Research in Motion who serves as the nerdy angel on Lazaridis’s shoulder to Balsillie’s devil. Johnson is great in the role and embeds a lot of his nerdy love of pop culture into his take on Fregin, such as comparing the wireless signal that the BlackBerry uses to the Force from Star Wars or suggesting bringing in computer engineer John Carmack (who’s the co-creator of the video game Doom) to help fix the BlackBerry network crash. And the way he dresses also stands out stand in contrast to Lazaridis and Balsillie, never seen without his huge glasses and orange sweat headband, and usually dressed in a various t-shirts referencing games like Wolfenstein and Mortal Kombat or movies like They Live. His casual attire is further reflected in the work environment that Fregin likes to cultivate, where they have move nights every Friday. There’s actually a fantastic scene between Fregin and Lazaridis after the company has hired a new, stricter CCO, where Fregin says that the reason why he provides such a fun work environment is the reason why the engineering team is willing to work 80-hour weeks where they rarely get to see their families.

The film boasts a nice supporting cast of some recognizable actors, such as Cary Elwes as Palm CEO Carl Yonkowski, Saul Rubinek as Verizon chairman John Woodman, and Michael Ironside as Charles Purdy, the aforementioned CCO brought in to manage the engineering team during the network crash. Ironside brings in an intimidating, no nonsense presence to the role, helped by the huge build he has in the film. However, a surprising role comes from Youtuber and voice actor SungWon Cho, better known as ProZD, as engineer Ritchie Cheung. It’s definitely a case of stunt casting, but it’s one that works, as Cho is pretty good in the three scenes that he has.

An entertaining and pop culture laden take off of a piece of tech history.

A film about the history and origin of a particular product is a difficult movie to pull off. And a good film to contrast the likes of BlackBerry with is its contemporary Air. Air was a movie with really low stakes of making a shoe and getting rookie player to sponsor it, and it tried to present its subject matter through the lenses of an inspiring true story. In contrast, BlackBerry is incredibly up front with how it takes artistic liberties with presenting the story about the rise and fall of the titular phone, with the film beginning with a title card that states that “The following fictionalization is inspired by real people and real events that took place in Waterloo, Ontario”. In short, the film follows the broad strokes of the creation, rise, and fall of the BlackBerry while filling in its own details (particularly the portrayal of principal figures like Lazaridis, Balsillie, and Fregin), and creating a far more engaging and entertaining film.

One engaging thing about the film is how both Mike Lazaridis and Research In Motion changes throughout time as the company he runs slowly becomes more corporate. Lazaridis is first introduced with Fregin before their pitch meeting to Jim Balsillie, where he goes out of his way to fix Balsillie’s white noise emitting intercom. When he officially begins to work with Balsillie, he points out that said intercoms are made for cheap in China by people who don’t care, and that wants the BlackBerry to be something he cares for and is passionate about instead of a cheaply assembled product like the intercom. This is further shown when spends up all night making a prototype of the BlackBerry and is even willing to be late to his and Balsillie’s pitch meeting to Verizon when he goes to retrieve it after leaving it in a taxi. However, this change slowly started to be seen after the incident where the BlackBerry network crashes, where the company becomes more corporate and the work environment stops being so fun. The aforementioned opening where Mike fixes the intercom is perfectly bookended in the final scene, showing how much Lazaridis has changed.

Lastly, there are two other elements that make BlackBerry such an incredibly engaging watch is the humor and Matt Johnson’s love of pop culture. Some of the funniest scenes naturally come from Glenn Howerton, be it his stone-faced reaction to Fregin asking if he has seen Star Wars, or slamming a phone down in rage after one employee walks into his office asking about his paycheck. However, one joke that has lived rent free in my head is where Charles Purdy tells the BlackBerry engineering team that he needs men and “not little boys playing with their penises” as the camera focuses in a female team member sitting in awkward silence. And like with his debut film The Dirties, Johnson packs in his love of nerd references. It’s best exemplified in the strip mall office that Research In Motion initially works out of, which is more like a college AV club, complete with members playing Doom on their desktops or painting figurines for tabletop games. In the engineering room of BlackBerry headquarters can be seen posters for films like Point Break, Shivers, and Serpico. And there is even a scene where it shows the engineering team’s movie night where the group watches the classic John Carpenter film They Live, and Fregin calls the part where Roddy Piper blasts an alien with a shotgun a “Duke Nukem moment”. Lastly, there’s the opening credits of the film, which is a montage of clips from various films, cartoons, and TV shows that feature either computers or phones, set to “Connection” by Elastica. This clips include the original Star Trek, Inspector Gadget, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the “Hack the planet!” clip from Hackers. Overall, it’s a spectacular way to start the film.

BlackBerry is not only the best of the product movies of the year, but also one of its biggest surprises. Matt Johnson crafts an incredibly entertaining and engaging film that features spectacular and hilarious lead performances from Jay Baruchel and Glenn Howerton, backed up by a supporting cast that includes Cary Elwes, Saul Rubinek, and Michael Ironside. Johnson eschews historical accuracy to create a way more engaging narrative that shows the change of both Mike Lazaridis and Research in Motion over time as they both become more corporate, while packing in a whole lot of fun nerd references. It’s a real fun surprise that should not be slept on.