Photo © IFC Films
BlackBerry
BlackBerry
The latest trend among filmmakers, or at least the folks who green-light films, is movies about products from the recent past. “Iconic” products, to use that overused word, that are said to say something about an era that has gained the shine of nostalgia. April saw the release of Air, a movie about the Nike sneaker. Now comes BlackBerry, about, you guessed it …
A drama about the handheld device that dominated the high-end of global markets in the ‘00s? Thankfully not! Canadian writer-director Matt Johnson successfully mines the fact-based material for humor, finding drollery in the central characters and the culture clash between them. BlackBerry stars Jay Baruchel as business exec Jim Balsillie and Glenn Howerton as techie Mike Lazaridis with Johnson playing Lazaridis’ buddy Doug Fregin. The gap between Balsillie on one side and Lazaridis-Fregin on the other is evident in the opening scene from the cars they drive—a BMW convertible vs. a Honda (fuzzy dice dangling from the rearview).
The setting is late ‘90s suburban Ontario, and Lazaridis and Fregin are making a bumbling presentation for their new idea. Tongue-tied, neatly pressed and nerdy, Lazaridis informs the dubious Balsillie that his high school shop teacher once said that “the person who puts a computer inside a phone will change the world.” Averting his eyes, he reads his pitch from a recipe card. The shaggy Fregin, who resembles a gregarious stoner, adds that there is a free wireless signal in the ether that no one has found out how to use—it’s like the Force! Balsillie is puzzled. He never saw Star Wars.
Based on Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff’s Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry, the film follows the general arc of reality as it distills head-spinning technology and business machinations into amusingly memorable scenes. Balsillie becomes co-CEO and co-owner of Lazaridis’ company, rescuing the naïve crew from a rapacious American tech company. He tolerates some aspects of the workplace atmosphere, a playpen for computer nerds, gaining confidence that they can deliver an all-in-one mobile device. However, tension never ceases. Lazaridis wants to build perfection. When Balsillie reminds him that the perfect is the enemy of the good, Lazaridis replies that good enough is the curse of humanity. Without Balsillie, the BlackBerry would never have found a market, but without Lazaridis, there would have been nothing to market. “Try typing with your thumbs,” he suggests to a skeptical corporate type while pitching the prototype.
The rise was rapid and the fall precipitous. In the early ‘00s, owning a BlackBerry bought status as the preferred accessory of movers, shakers and wannabes around the world. And then along came a fellow written off by some as a has been, Steve Jobs, with a little thing called the iPhone …
BlackBerry is screening at Marcus Hillside Cinema and the Oriental Theatre.
