BlackBerry
At one point towards the climax of “BlackBerry,” co-CEO Jim Balsillie- who ruthlessly seized control of the company, and did less than ethical things to get it to the top of the tech world- is told by one of his marketing people, “We’re gonna go from the #1 phone in the world to ‘that phone’ that people had BEFORE they bought an iPhone.” Fifteen years later, one can see the folly in Mike Lazaridis’s thinking when he cannot possibly imagine the iPhone overtaking the BlackBerry clearly, but his thinking wasn’t just blinded by arrogance, but of wanting to keep the thing he loved, the thing HE felt was the true future of connection, on top. But Apple beat them in ways that revolutionized mobile communication the same way Lazaridis and his friend Doug did when they were initially bringing the BlackBerry to life. Ten years ago, I traded in my BlackBerry for an iPhone, and I never looked back. I still love the idea of that BlackBerry, though, but it’s not just nostalgia for a device that had me so entertained by Matt Johnson’s dramatic comedy.
Mike (Jay Baruchel) and Doug (Johnson) are way out of their league the moment they step into the room with Balsillie (Glenn Howerton) in the opening scene of “BlackBerry.” They can talk technically, but they can’t get someone who isn’t tech savvy to buy what they’re selling. How they ended up taking Balsillie up on his offer to be CEO of their company, and how they came to dominate the early years of the mobile phone market, is a wild story. This isn’t “The Social Network,” but some of the story beats are the same, as Mike starts to understand why Balsillie gets them where they are, and Doug lacks that instinct. Mike doesn’t quite become a cutthroat businessman, though; one of the things I enjoyed most about Baruchel’s performance is how Mike trying to be more like Jim completely exposes how he’s always going to be a tech nerd first- he just doesn’t have that killer attitude Jim has. But Jim is bullshitting his way through this, as well; the ways in which he gets some of the best engineers in the world to commit to BlackBerry are less than legal. But Jim is a magnificent bullshitter, and just the voice this company needed to get as far as it did.
Johnson’s approach in his direction of this film is shaggy. This isn’t a sharp-looking film, but rather, it feels like a film about Gen Xers who stumbled across a great idea for the world, and somehow made it happen. (I know Lazaridis and Doug are older than Gen X demographics, but the point still stands.) Given the operation Mike and Doug are running in RIM before Jim comes in, that makes sense; this isn’t a verite film where it feels like a documentary but Johnson and his cinematographer, Jared Raab, make it feel very lived-in. RIM is a slob’s paradise, and visually, the film feels that way, but even when BlackBerry blows up, the visuals don’t really clean up- there’s still a roughness to the way scenes play out, and the world is a far cry from the tech giants of Silicon Valley.
I enjoyed thoroughly the world, and story, of “BlackBerry.” This film keeps us entertained by focusing on how this whole story almost entirely played out through sheer luck rather than talent. The performances are terrific. And I love how, when someone mentions moving production to China, you can feel Lazaridis twitch. It’s not because of their shady labor practices, though; it’s because he doesn’t trust anyone else to get his creation right. In the end, he’s proven right, but in holding on too much to his creation, he let others pass him by. This film is probably the most significant thing he’ll have his name attached to fifteen years from now.
