Written by: Matt Johnson & Matthew Miller
Starring: Jay Baruchel, Glenn Howerton, Matt Johnson, Rich Sommer, Michael Ironside
Rating: [4/5]
Adapt or die serves as one of the all-important sayings in the world of business where one must move with the changing tide even when comfortable. It has served as the downfall for many companies like Blockbuster, but it’s difficult to find a more precipitous fall from failure to innovate than the Blackberry. Once the most popular handheld cellular device in the world and reduced to relic in a short amount of time. This excellent feature displays this rise and fall in a meticulous but also enthralling manner, which many might not expect from a film centered on a phone.
Trying to push their idea of the PocketLink to local businessmen in the hopes for some funding, Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel) and Doug Fregin (Matt Johnson) receive a partnership opportunity from Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton). Together they craft a smartphone that completely revolutionizes the way the entire telecommunications industry operates and finds profitability.
Blackberry stands within a growing trend of films focused on products we all know and examines how they came into prominence in addition to shedding some light on the individuals behind it all. As someone who lived through the reign of the Blackberry phone from a young age and therefore completely unaware of its prominence, this film served as quite the revelation. iPhones making their way into his film felt like an inevitability that would eventually arrive in this film and judging by my lived experience with the rise of the Apple product it makes the decline of the once-dominant Blackberry all the more striking.
With this phone rising towards its marketplace dominance, this film shows the duality of what it takes to succeed. We have the creative side that puts the product together, and then we have the business side that needs to appropriately market the creation to rake in more revenue and therefore more growth. These two elements sit in conflict for the majority of the film as it plays out in battles between Balsillie and the developers where they try to meet each other’s expectations for the shared goal of success. The tension brewing between the two sides stems from the culture they want at the company where the developers want this college frat house enjoyment to run concurrently with their work that the tech world prides itself in harboring to maximize creativity but Balsillie wants to milk every product, idea, and second dry for profit. This leaves Lazaridis in the middle of it all trying to keep the peace, which makes for a performance I never knew Jay Baruchel had in him.
Mostly known for taking on roles where he represents the awkwardly nerdy guy who somehow gets the gorgeous girl, Baruchel taps into something completely different in his portrayal of Mike Lazaridis. In moments, he felt unrecognizable with the seriousness this role asked of him and he thrives. He manages to completely move away from his typecast in displaying the mental anguish of this genius trying to make everything work for this company while carrying the burden of both the creative and business side. It demonstrates exactly why the man had white hair at a fairly young age considering how he had Balsillie and the developers squeezing him in as he tried to find the peace between them both. Never have I been more impressed by Jay Baruchel as an actor and I hope he continues to dabble in this arena because the man has more to him than I ever gave credit for.
However, with all that said, this film belongs solely to Glenn Howerton and his bombastic portrayal of Jim Balsillie. My affection for him came baked in for my love of his work as Dennis in “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and he ratchets up his craziness to another extreme. At least in the series he operates as one of the many crazy figures, but the man needs to stand out in his cartoonish evilness within a serious story and his yelling has never been put to better use. While he excels in loud area aplenty already, what he manages to do with his face in concealing his emotions where we see moments where he wants to explode and you can almost see the inner battle between his temper and brain trying to win out what comes to the surface. Howerton puts in some exceptional work and it makes me glad he wants to try and work in more dramatic fare because he can serve as quite an asset to any story as he proves here.
Getting the behind-the-scenes look of what the Blackberry device resonate with many and unceremoniously disappear displays how in an ever-changing world of technology quickly leaves behind those who fail to adapt. This film displays how it happens in real time and while much of the plot focuses on the drama behind the curtain it allows for this macro look of what it means to succeed in such an unforgiving business world where consumers drop a product as soon as the next shiny one arrives. Instead of seeing how a business can fall away after reaching the summit, we see the individuals behind it and makes the experience hit all the harder. Blackberry captures this experience incredibly well and certainly leaves quite the impression.
Films with Josh 
