BlackBerry
In 2010 , Aaron Sorkin created a sub - musical genre with the release of his Facebook dramaThe Social internet , a masterpiece and one of the honest films released that decade . Since then , there have been plenty of copycat who have give out to even near the impossibly high benchmark set by Sorkin ’s film . guess of the Steve Jobs biopicJobsled by Ashton Kutcher or theTeslabiopic that could n’t even be save by Ethan Hawke ’s lead performance . Then , there have been those who have hail close to the illustriousness ofThe Social connection — Moneyball , The Big Short , The Wolf of Wall Street . BlackBerry , a new film from writer - theatre director Matt Johnson , lands somewhere between the duds and the masterpieces . It ’s full of tight - talking tech dweeb and morally compromised corporate A - holes , it bite off a bit more than it can manducate in assure the history of Research in Motion , but it ’s still a ripe time , reminiscent of mid - budget dramedies that have all but disappeared in recent years .
BlackBerryquickly introduces its central actor in a kinetic opening prospect that pick up Research in Motion owners Mike Lazaridis ( Jay Baruchel ) and Douglas Fregin ( Matt Johnson ) sales pitch Jim Balsillie ( Glen Howerton ) on their prospective machine . Without a prototype , the pitch tanks , but Jim is intrigue and decides to put all his ballock in the BlackBerry handbasket , pulling Research in Motion out of debt and kick - starting the maturation of the machine that would commute the path the world communicates .
From there , thing go haywire and the story itself is incredible . What could easily have been a dry political campaign through a hard - to - parse story quickly uncover itself to be much more thanks to Johnson ’s piercing script that is informative without being slow . Both Baruchel and Johnson are great in their roles as best Quaker turn business concern married person , performing the ickiness of such a human relationship without recede the heart of it .
in the end , though , it ’s Howerton who steals the show . The histrion becomes a domineering presence on the Research in Motion floor , scald the squad into shape , so he can make full on the mortgage he leveraged to reset the company ’s debt . Many ofBlackBerry ’s funniest moments come from Howerton , whose operation inIt ’s Always Sunny in Philadelphiafeels like a forerunner to this . Here , the actor is able to tilt into his spectacular side to heavy effect even if the want of full characterization for him ( or any of the film ’s fibre ) make it hard to to the full invest .
AsBlackBerrymoves through the age to the inevitableinvention of the iPhoneand Apple ’s usurpation of Research in Motion as the dominant cell telephone set , an interesting portrait of the collective tending span in the Internet Age reveals itself . The squad at Research in Motion is constantly move on to the next innovation , the next upgrade , the next thing that will put them and keep them at the top . Whether that ’s the amount of users its web is up to of give at once or some software or gadget update that is crucial to stay ahead of competitor , nothing is ever all right at the moment . The Research in Moment team is always distressed about the hereafter , never able to relish in the successes of the present .
It ’s during this race thatBlackBerryloses some of its steam . We know the gadget is doom to miscarry not of its own flaws , but because the world is ricochet to move on . It ’s no wonderment that , when a video of Steve Jobs introducing the first iPhone protrude up , that ’s whenBlackBerrybegins to feel alive again . Despite its sagging centre , the film has aSuccession - lite sort of trend in its photographic camera work and deadpan humour that superintend to retain its grip on audiences . Like find out a car crash or a slow - motion action scene , there ’s something aboutBlackBerrythat make it heavy to depend away even as the ending comes and everything crash down .
The cast of BlackBerry.
BlackBerrypremieres in theaters on May 12 . The film is 121 minute long and betray R for language throughout .
BlackBerry is a biographical drama movie that tells a dramatized rendition of the history of the now - defunct mobile phone manufacturer . The film explores the fast - paced and bowelless entrepreneurial atmosphere of Silicon Valley that BlackBerry had to trudge through to make it to the top . But all great empires eventually fall - a lesson BlackBerry learned the hard way .
Glenn Howerton in BlackBerry
Jay Baruchel in BlackBerry
