Odds are higher than common that you just’re studying this evaluation in your cellphone. And that, as soon as you bought a smartphone, you sought out websites like this one to mirror your private pursuits. You in all probability don’t even take into consideration how that course of got here to be, because it’s only a pure a part of life now. Would you wish to see a film about that? Possibly not in idea, particularly if it have been scrupulously fact-based and featured principally advertising conferences. In BlackBerry, nevertheless, a film concerning the first mass-produced smartphone, writer-director-actor Matt Johnson (The Dirties) could be very clear upfront that he has made a fictionalized retelling. Basically, because it performs out, it’s like a Youngsters within the Corridor sketch model, set within the real-but-fake-sounding Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
Johnson’s earlier works have principally been discovered footage and mockumentary, so the mixing of fact and fiction is nothing new to him. For individuals who may go in anticipating a “stranger than fiction” true story, nevertheless, right here’s a fast corrective: BlackBerry inventor Mike Lazaridis, a Greek immigrant described by the Canadian Globe and Mail as “a beefy, friendly-looking man, with poofy silver hair and an affable if supremely assured method about him,” appears to be like nothing like actor Jay Baruchel in successively worse white wigs and the physique language of a terrified bunny. And the BlackBerry was not, actually, named after a jelly stain on his shirt.
IFC’s barely muddled advertising on the topic apart, the film appears to be a bit more true than the Bizarre Al biopic, however fairly a bit much less so than The Social Community. Its level is much less to doc an precise product improvement course of, and extra to supply a parable of nerds colliding headfirst with cutthroat capitalism. Which is arguably the defining pop-cultural battle of the final 20 years.
Mike and Doug’s Wonderful Proposal
The film’s Mike Lazaridis (Baruchel) and Doug Fregin (director Johnson) are old-school nerds, as in “Revenge of the…” who seem to have a great enterprise, circa 1996. They promote modems for fats contracts, and their handful of workers principally play Wolfenstein or argue on Star Trek fan boards throughout work hours. Mike’s the quiet genius whereas Doug, together with his loudmouth, ever-present headband, and poorly styled T-shirts is harking back to Judah Friedlander’s extra aggressive persona. Neither is especially nice at pitching their newest thought, an all-in-one system that mixes a cellphone, pager, and e mail terminal in a pocket system.
After a clumsy presentation to humorless government Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton) falls flat, Balsillie is himself fired however sufficient within the product to supply to take over Mike and Doug’s awkwardly named firm, RIM (Analysis in Movement). Negotiating him down throughout a televised hockey sport, Mike will get him to agree that they be co-CEOs and, from there, the enjoyable begins. No less than on this telling. Introverted Mike has all of the smarts and the monomaniacal concentrate on making one of the best product. Hockey fiend Jim is a brash company man who has by no means seen Star Wars however in all probability is aware of Glengarry Glenn Ross by coronary heart. In between them is Doug, who imagines himself the hero of each underdog film when he’s really extra of the real-life comedian reduction — to the extent that this may be referred to as “actual life,” anyway.
Cameos? As You Want…
Mike and Doug’s posse of sensible dorks love their film nights, which turns a number of the stunt casting right here right into a sly in-joke. Cary Elwes exhibits up because the CEO of Palm Pilot threatening a hostile takeover, which makes him a form of dread company pirate. Michael Ironside in a bulked-up swimsuit appears to be like like Burl Ives enjoying the Kingpin in his function as a company disciplinarian. That the BlackBerry workforce could be among the many actual Elwes and Ironside’s largest followers doesn’t require remarking upon; when you’re the target market for this film, you recognize. Balsillie, whose identify appears like an apparent low-cost joke arrange, sees the pronunciation of it run the suitable gamut. When he’s taking dangers and rising, he insists it’s pronounced “BALLS-ly.” Later, as the corporate declines, it turns into “Ball-SILLY.”
In truth, neither Mike nor Jim got here away too badly, because the wealthy so typically don’t. The rise-and-fall arc suits film formulation, however it’s extra of a schadenfreude generator right here. In hindsight, after all Mike’s fixation on a keypad appears pointlessly myopic, and Jim’s try to purchase an American NHL workforce and transfer it to Canada insane. Left unsaid is the truism that these are the kinds of oldsters we’re finally all subservient to, and the second they will do away with the basic, socially awkward nerds, they are going to.
Nerd-vana? Nevermind.
These days, everybody from Chris Hardwick to Dwayne Johnson is a self-declared “nerd,” typically based mostly on one thing like the truth that they watched Saturday morning cartoons and performed with Star Wars figures as a child, similar to everybody else. BlackBerry returns us to a time when it meant one thing else, and the oldsters to whom the label utilized briefly appeared like they have been on a everlasting upswing. As an alternative, they turned coopted, because the nouveau riche do. This can be an imaginary retelling, however it additionally appears like a pointed warning. Nonetheless a lot chances are you’ll love your job, it doesn’t love you again if there’s the slightest probability it may be extra worthwhile with out you. The true Mike Lazaridis apparently understood this, all the time making time for his spouse and children that the film doesn’t even acknowledge the existence of.
As a director, Johnson likes to make audiences uncomfortable, however in enjoying Doug with a mix of goofy mugging and actual ardour, he telegraphs that you could snigger each at and with the characters onscreen. In any case, the actual ones laughed all the way in which to their fats severance checks.
Grade: 7/10
As ComingSoon’s evaluation coverage explains, a rating of seven equates to “Good.” A profitable piece of leisure that’s price testing, however it could not attraction to everybody.
