‘BlackBerry Review: Big Dreams, Little Keyboards
In Matt Johnson's BlackBerry, a sleazy workplace comedy turned tragedy, the arrival of the phone isn't greeted with flashy firecrackers and champagne corks. Instead, Johnson and co-author Matthew Miller (in the film adaptation of Jackie McNish and Sean Silkoff's 2015 book Loss of Signal: The Untold Story Behind BlackBerry's Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall) wrote an evolutionary success story. his humor with an amazingly moving wit.
This mix of hilarity and pathos was evident in Johnson's previous film, Operation Avalanche (2016), along with a bold cinematic style that effortlessly creates breakthrough innovation. This time it's 1996 in Waterloo, Ontario, home to Mike Lazaridis (a perfect Jay Baruchel) and Doug Freggin (Johnson), best friends and founders of a small technology company called Research in Motion (RIM). They're trying to sell a product they call PocketLink, a revolutionary combination of a cell phone, messaging device, and website. While waiting to set up a room full of costumes, Mike is distracted by the annoying buzzing of the intercom. He picks up the clipboard and quickly fixes it, only to discover that it was made in China. He has a disgusted look on his face that you'll remember later when editing issues force you to choose a build option you hate.
With sharp flashbacks like these, "BlackBerry" dramatically connects the story's descent into innocence and the optimism of its opening scenes. The businessmen don't understand Mike and Doug's tricks, but a predatory salesman named Jim Balsillie (a wonderful Glenn Howerton) does. With renewed enthusiasm and enthusiasm, Jim sees the potential of the device and strikes a deal in which he will take over part of RIM in exchange for money and expertise. Doug, a disheveled, blindfolded male child, hesitates; Mike, maintaining a sideburn of prematurely gray hair, is getting smarter. He knows they need an intermediary to succeed.
With a hopeful, edgy and rebellious vibe that perfectly matches the theme, "BlackBerry" finds plenty of humor in Jim's determination to turn RIM's thriving workforce of geeks into productive workers who look and act like college students. in conversation, they speak in hybrid allusions to the language of technology and cinema. For Jim, it's all Vogon poetry; But as Jared Raab's restless camera wanders through the chaotic workspace, there's a palpable sense of destruction and delight in creation. It helps that the director knew more than just the feel of a workspace full of friends—he's been around since his 2013 feature debut, The Dirties .
Backed by strong actors in small roles: Michael Ironside as Pitbull's COO, Martin Donovan as the boss who sees danger in Jim's brutality, BlackBerry is shocked that the money is coming in and the Google Übergeek is attracting million-dollar deals. . . Some of the financial shenanigans, such as Jim's Palm Pilot's desperate attempts to stave off a hostile takeover, are unclear; But BlackBerry isn't just the story of a life-changing device. Long before the death knell of the iPhone's launch, Jim teases the two friends so cruelly that the thought of a forgotten Doug staring out the window as Jim and Mike go to their meeting is painful. .
Perhaps more than anything else, BlackBerry illustrates the vulnerability and exploitation of creators in a tough market. The dynamic and interdependence between technology and business (illustrated brilliantly in Jim and Mike's sale to a mobile phone carrier) is a central theme of the film and the source of its enduring melancholy tone. "When you grow up, your heart dies," Doug once said, referring to The Breakfast Club. The sad sweetness of The Kinks' "Waterloo Sunset" overpowers the credits.
"Whoever connects a computer to a telephone will change the world," a workshop instructor once told Mike. He was right; And if BlackBerry is to blame, it may refuse to announce the desirability of these changes we've all been writing about for ages.
black-berry rowan
Rated R for Glengarry Glen Ross language and Silicon Valley fashion. Duration: 2 hours 2 minutes. In the cinema
