Films about the making of a product can either be interesting or dull. In my opinion, there's not a lot of room in between because it was either a good story or not. In the case of Blackberry, I was obviously aware of the phone but never knew the behind-the-scenes stuff. I'm also slightly biased being a Canadian, with this film taking place very close to where I'm from, so if that makes you take this review with a grain of salt, so be it. I absolutely loved it from start to finish and here's why.
Blackberry tells the story of Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel) and his genius mind that creates the world's first smartphone, the Blackberry.
Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton) steps in and buys his way into being the Co-CEO of the company in order to sell the phone. Balsillie is determined to shoot for the moon and nothing else, which in turn may or may not hurt the company overall. If you know the story, you know what I mean, but I won't ruin it. My favourite thing about watching this film though was the fact that I didn't know half of what went down in real life. This was a riveting and engaging lesson of school that I felt like a sat through.
Adapted from the novel by Matthew Miller and Matt Johnson (who also did a fantastic job directing this film), the dialogue here was stellar. I was glued to the screen, even when two characters were just sitting in a room and talking. I'm not saying this film is as great as The Social Network, but the story itself is in my opinion. It's a fascinating tale of the dog-eat-dog world that we live in. On top of the fantastic dialogue, Baruchel and Howerton sell these roles and probably each delivers the performances of their careers (especially Howerton).
From the editing style that genuinely impressed me to the great direction, performances, and even music choices, Blackberry is a film that I have little to no complaints about. The camera work with all the snap zooms annoyed me a bit, but that's really all I can nitpick. I also give it props for being a Canadian film, made by Canadians, starring some Canadian actors. I would also be remiss if I didn't mention the fact that while the story is very interesting, it's also funny when it needs to be. It almost becomes a satire at times and I loved it even more for that. It took the story seriously, but not exactly the movie around it, which worked so well. If you can't tell, I'll be gushing about this one for a while. I highly recommend checking out Blackberry, now playing in theatres.
Blackberry tells the story of Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel) and his genius mind that creates the world's first smartphone, the Blackberry.
Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton) steps in and buys his way into being the Co-CEO of the company in order to sell the phone. Balsillie is determined to shoot for the moon and nothing else, which in turn may or may not hurt the company overall. If you know the story, you know what I mean, but I won't ruin it. My favourite thing about watching this film though was the fact that I didn't know half of what went down in real life. This was a riveting and engaging lesson of school that I felt like a sat through.
Adapted from the novel by Matthew Miller and Matt Johnson (who also did a fantastic job directing this film), the dialogue here was stellar. I was glued to the screen, even when two characters were just sitting in a room and talking. I'm not saying this film is as great as The Social Network, but the story itself is in my opinion. It's a fascinating tale of the dog-eat-dog world that we live in. On top of the fantastic dialogue, Baruchel and Howerton sell these roles and probably each delivers the performances of their careers (especially Howerton).
From the editing style that genuinely impressed me to the great direction, performances, and even music choices, Blackberry is a film that I have little to no complaints about. The camera work with all the snap zooms annoyed me a bit, but that's really all I can nitpick. I also give it props for being a Canadian film, made by Canadians, starring some Canadian actors. I would also be remiss if I didn't mention the fact that while the story is very interesting, it's also funny when it needs to be. It almost becomes a satire at times and I loved it even more for that. It took the story seriously, but not exactly the movie around it, which worked so well. If you can't tell, I'll be gushing about this one for a while. I highly recommend checking out Blackberry, now playing in theatres.