Editor’s Note: “BlackBerry” is being released in theaters this Friday in NYC and L.A.
There are some out there who think Matt Johnson’s outrageously entertaining “BlackBerry” can be an awards contender. Let’s all take a deep breath and calm down.
If anything, the awards talk does a major disservice to Johnson’s compulsively watchable and, quite frankly, very funny comedic movie. It doesn’t need toxic awards talk, it’s more than that: a film that couldn’t care less about awards season.
If any of the inevitable comparisons to Ben Affleck’s “Air” get through to your feed, ignore them, this is a much better, more artful and energetic rags to riches business story from Johnson. He shoots it in 35mm handheld cameras, trying to make it as look as grainy and realistic as a doc from 2004.
Johnson’s film is about the rise and fall of the BlackBerry smartphone and the quirky Canadians who created it before Apple came to town and screwed things up for them. It’s also about the friendship between the three minds behind the first smartphone.
Mostly set within the grimy Research in Motion offices, which went on to create the phone, dubbed by some as the CrackBerry, there’s style, humor and some rightful jabs at the greedy powers that can take control of tech creativity.
The cast is top notch: Jay Baruchel as Mike Lazaridis and Glenn Howerton as Jim Balsillie are on-point as total opposites who lose track of their creation when hubris and money comes into play. Matt Johnson even stars alongside them and, know what? He’s a pretty damn good actor. He plays Lazaridis’ sidekick, a genius schlub with barely any ambitions other than to look forward to Thursdays at the office (which is when movie night occurs).
Problems only start to arise for the company when Steve Jobs announces the iPhone. BlackBerry couldn’t keep up with Jobs’ innovation, Lazaridis thought it would be a fad that would quickly dwindle, especially since, as he says, the iPhone had no genuine keyboard in its outer design.
The film’s 124 minutes just zip by. This isn’t a film that’s trying to break the mold or reinvent cinema. It’s honestly just trying to tell this fascinating true tale about company men who tried, very hard, to stay on-top amidst an ever-changing tech world.
Johnson uses the same docu-style filmmaking from his Sundance hit, “Operation Avalanche,” not to mention his curious debut, “The Dirties,” but he really hits the mark here because the story is just so contagiously interesting.
The reviews have been top-notch for “BlackBerry.” I just hope this little gem of a film doesn’t get lost in the flood of summer movies when it debuts in theaters on May 12. [B+]
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