Per Matt
If one can wax poetic about a pair of basketball shoes, then why can’t one also get nostalgic about a smartphone? It must be awards season if Michael Jordan’s shoes fight against Research In Motion’s groundbreaking technology in a battle for biopic supremacy. It’s time to get technical with my official Blackberry review.
Unlike Air, BlackBerry doesn’t feature a cast full of A-listers. But its Geek Culture credentials are quite stellar. Throughout the years, I’ve become a fan of just about everything Jay Barouchel appears in. His professional choices just seem to click with me, beginning with his appearance in the short-lived series, Undeclared. Comedy fans should recognize Glenn Howerton from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (I was a big fan of the show’s early years), but you may not recognize him here, sporting a mostly bald head. These two actors go head-to-head, both as friend and foe, while working for the same company. This film was brought to life by Matt Johnson, who has built up quite a following via indie films.
Back in the day, I don’t actually recall owning a BlackBerry. I knew all about the technology and even operated one on occasion in my family, but it was never a “CrackBerry” to me. Regardless, this cautionary underdog tale still resonated with me.
Adapted from the book, Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry, this big-screen story was inspired by real people and the real events that took place in Waterloo, Ontario. Can you imagine a time when “a cellphone, a pager and an email machine were all combined into one thing,” didn’t yet exist? Originally conceived as the “Pocket Link” this device would eventually change the world, taking advantage of the free wireless internet signal all across North America, which no one had figured out how to access… until RIM entered the picture.
Written off by a potential big investor, RIM cofounders Mike (Barouchel) and Doug (Johnson) bring in a screaming shark (Howerton) to deal with the many new-technology pirates. The business guy trapped within a geek’s world turns the story into a fish-out-of-water tale where the developers face more than $1 million in debt, no assets, no contracts, no prototypes and already a year behind its rival in production, but the company had a dynamic vision.
Renamed BlackBerry, the company develops new technology while releasing the No. 1 phone in the world, despite fighting off a hostile takeover, a global crisis of massive service interruptions, delayed messaging and manufacturing errors.
“Why would anybody want a phone without a keyboard?”
And then there’s the emerging presence of the Android and iPhone upstarts…
The Cast of BlackBerry in Matt Johnson’s BlackBerry. Photo Courtesy: IFC Films.
Filmed as though a documentary crew with incredibly shaky camera antics to make it feel real, my motion sickness gets triggered, but I really enjoyed it, nonetheless. Baruchel’s understated geekiness is amplified to the nth degree by Johnson, whose character tends to overplay his hand one too many times. Their oddball yin and yang resonated with me as the heart of the story.
Mike and Doug lose control of their company as the market changes and it’s too little, too late. All the money that’s thrown around to bring in “the best engineers in Canada” can’t keep the company afloat. The moral of the story wads up manipulation, corporate greed and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, but there never is one true villain.
I’m not really sure why this film didn’t leave its mark stateside. While the subject matter mostly focuses on the Great White North, I enjoyed it more than a watching a few “blockbusters” that were released this year. So, why didn’t some of Canada’s biggest exports support its release? The joint WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes might have had something to do with its lack of promotion and quick disappearance from the marketplace, which is too bad. Ignoring its miniscule box-office presence, BlackBerry was later re-edited and released as a limited series on TV, incorporated with all-new scenes in hopes of building an audience. I truly recommend watching this IFC Films gem, in any format you may find.
Whether dealing with shoes or smart phones, overcoming great odds is a tale that never grows old. Some people can handle the pressure, while others cannot. The air up there seems to be rare, once it’s attained. Beware the ne’er-do-wells, though.
“I’m from Waterloo… where the vampires hang out!!!”