BlackBerry
Composite Score: 82.07
Starring: Jay Baruchel, Glenn Howerton, Matt Johnson, Laura Cilevitz, Ben Petrie, Saul Rubinek, Cary Elwes, Rich Sommer, Eric Osborne, and Michael Ironside
Director: Matt Johnson
Writers: Matt Johnson and Matthew Miller
Genres: Biography, Comedy, Drama, History
MPAA Rating: R for language throughout
Box Office: $2.05 million Worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
BlackBerry is the loose film adaptation of Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff’s book Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry about the creation and eventual decline of the BlackBerry cell phone line. The film stars Jay Baruchel and Matt Johnson as the cofounders of BlackBerry’s parent company Research in Motion – Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin, respectively – alongside Glenn Howerton as their chief investment and co-CEO Jim Balsillie. The film’s fictionalized exploration of the ins and outs of the iconic cell phone and the business model built around it garnered a lot of attention after its opening at Berlin in 2023, particularly Glenn Howerton’s performance as the unscrupulous businessman in this particular adaptation of the BlackBerry story.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
BlackBerry holds up in most of the areas where you’d expect a small budget historic bio-comedy to fall flat – it’s funny, has understandable stakes, offers a solid blend of fact and fiction, and has a trio of strong leads to carry it. Unfortunately, the highs can’t cover everything about its less-than-blockbuster budget. The most glaring oddity that the film offers lies in the form of the wigs they keep putting on Jay Baruchel. Each of the three eras features an increasingly ridiculous gray or white wig on Baruchel’s head that just about takes you out of the world of the film because of how obviously a wig it is. I will give them credit for fairly accurately replicating Lazaridis’s actual hairstyles with the wigs, but they just look so out of place on Baruchel’s head that they seem almost like gag props themselves, not to mention the bald cap that Glenn Howerton dons for the film’s entirety, which is more jarring than unrealistic because I know how he looks in real life.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
Though its plot moves like a historical mockumentary, the film itself operates more like a character study biopic, focusing on the devolution of Mike Lazaridis from hesitant geek with a passion project to megalomaniacal and underhanded CEO of a plummeting company, in the vein of a reverse Steve Jobs almost as we see him lose his convictions and humanity as success and his co-CEO (Jim Balsillie) corrupt him. This course is aided by strong turns from both Baruchel and Howerton as well as some solid juxtaposition and call back work from Matt Johnson as director and writer. Baruchel plays each new version of Lazaridis as just believably cringey enough to stay endearing without becoming personable. It’s a challenging role that the underrated actor brings the fullness of his capabilities to bear on in impressive fashion. Were it not for Glenn Howerton, Baruchel probably would be the unsung hero and snub of the 2023 awards season, but Howerton takes himself to another level with his portrayal of Jim Balsillie (however historically inaccurate it might be). His no-holds-barred, frenetic, businessman demeanor works so well in contrast with Baruchel and the other characters that comprise the employees of RIM, and then when things start to unravel and come together (a simultaneous moment in the film that allows him to really lean into his performance) he comes fully unhinged and gives some of the best and funniest line readings of the year (there’s one in particular that will probably stick with me for the rest of my life from the third act). It’s two great performances that allow the film to live in a familiar space without ever feeling overdone or unoriginal.
Jay Baruchel and Glenn Howerton shine as the leads in BlackBerry, giving contrasting performances that elevate its historic tale to levels of dramedy excellence, earning the film a place among the greats. Some of the production value might leave something to be desired to the extent that it detracts from the rest of the film, but its originality and entertainment value more than make up for an underbudget hair department. You can currently stream this film on Hulu if you’d like to check it out in the coming days.
