Jay Baruchel – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

BLACKBERRY – Review by Emma Badame

May 16, 2023May 16, 2023 Emma Badame Blackberry, canadian films., Douglas Fregin, Glenn Howerton, Jacob Raab, Jay Baruchel, Jim Balsillie, Matt Johnson, Michelle Giroux, Mike Lazaridis, Research in Motion, smartphone

You’d be forgiven for thinking that the story of the sensational rise and fall of the first smartphone would make a better doc than drama, but director and co-writer Matt Johnson turns that theory on its head with the fabulous bio-comedy, and faux-documentary, BlackBerry. The proudly Canadian feature tells the home-grown story of Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel) and Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton), the two men behind the spectacularly popular line of thumb-numbing mobile devices. It traces its beginnings at the Waterloo, Ontario-based tech company Research in Motion (RiM) to its impressive and catastrophic downfall, largely due to cocky business decisions and a failure to keep up in an ever-changing, fast-moving market.

Reviews

BLACKBERRY – Review by T.J. Callahan

May 11, 2023May 11, 2023 T. J. Callahan Blackberry, Douglas Fregin, Glenn Howerton, Jay Baruchel, Jim Balsillie, Matt Johnson, Mike Lazaridis, smartphone

BlackBerry is a techno savvy dramady inspired by true events, a story that starts with a look into the fraternity house ambience-like facility where the prototype of the new fangled smart phone was developed. White-wigged Jay Baruchel portrays the tech prodigy Mike Lazaridis and the perpetually red headbanded Matt Johnson, who wrote and directed the film, is the techo whiz’s best friend and the company’s co-founder Douglas Fregin. BlackBerry is The Social Network meets The Office. If Wally and the Beaver went on Shark Tank. It’s not a button-downed biopic, but is more of an entertaining rumpled rag tag look at a group of undeniable geniuses with more brains than social skills and financial savvy.