BlackBerry
For one brief shining moment, the centre of the high-tech universe was Waterloo, Ontario, where an upstart firm called Research in Motion developed the BlackBerry, the first smartphone. When Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel) and his friend Doug Fregin (director Matt Johnson) realise they have created a handheld device with the potential to change the world, they make a pact with a smooth-talking corporate shark, Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton), and together they take BlackBerry to the big time. In Johnson’s fast-paced rise-and-fall story, we witness the thrill of discovery, the aggressive conquering of a brand-new market and a conclusion worthy of a Greek tragedy. While Lazaridis proved unable or unwilling to improve on his original tech, Balsillie sacrificed his reputation in a shady bid to bring a professional hockey team to Waterloo. Thrumming through the background of BLACKBERRY like an unseen menace is a rival company called Apple, which would soon release a new handheld product called the iPhone. While comparisons to Danny Boyle’s STEVE JOBS are inevitable, Johnson’s film is gloriously Canadian, its tech-bro swagger haunted by the spectre of self-doubt. (Michael Sicinski)
Matt Johnson: THE DIRTIES (2013), OPERATION AVALANCHE (2016)
- Jay Baruchel
- Glenn Howerton
- Matt Johnson
- Cary Elwes
- Saul Rubinek
- Michael Ironside
- Rich Sommer
- Sungwon Cho
- Michelle Giroux
- Mark Critch
- Matthew Miller
- Jared Raab
- Nathan Street
- Curt Lobb
- Jay McCarrol
- Adam Belanger
XYZ Films
