Trakt for iOS
Works on iPhone and iPad.
I've quickly become a fan of the burgeoning "True Corporate" genre (as opposed to True Crime). Between this film, Tetris, and Air, I consider the genre three for three this year. I'm sure the films aren't for everyone, but having worked most of my career at the intersection of legal and finance/accounting, I find the stories fascinating. The case of BlackBerry is even more so given that it took place within my lifetime. Being able to map the events in the film against my own recollection of BlackBerry's prevalence definitely adds something. Combine that with solid writing and fantastic performances from both Jay Baruchel and Glenn Howerton and the end result is an easy recommend.
As a tiny little nitpick, I think "save the cat" moment of Mike fixing the buzzing intercom in the opening scene was a bit cliché and ultimately unnecessary. I think the theme/message would have been equally (if not more) effective had he just identified the buzz, given the same commentary about it, maybe even opened it up and tried to fix it, but not actually fixed it. It's just a bit of an eye roll, because I don't buy that thirty seconds and a paper clip is enough to fix much of anything. But I'm not an electrical engineer, so maybe I'm totally off base. In any case, not a big deal, and ultimately the scene works just fine as is, but I would have tweaked it.
This was so much fun, didn't expect to like it that much. Glenn and Jay were absolutely superb!
I had the feeling they skipped too much time - from a startup with an early prototype to a huge ad with the newest Blackberry in a second. It would had worked for me better as a show with 10 to 12 episodes with one hour an episode.
The movie is as advertised - it is surprisingly entertaining and informative. While I found it particularly interesting because I lived through that time and adored that phone, I think the story is good enough for a non-geek to appreciate. The two leads are perfectly cast and form an excellent center to the movie. I would have actually liked it more if it had spent more time showing us the evolution of the phone. In that sense it may have worked better as a limited-series show.
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I never had a Blackberry, but I vividly remember playing with my sister's Blackberry Storm and Curve, and that WAS a satisfying click! This was a very good movie with really great performances from Howerton and Baruchel.
Performances, great. Tone, lovely. High level plot, solid. Actual story narrative... rushed, a bit disjointed, and having a few odd beats. Even though it's not perfect, it also isn't terrible, just less than it could be. Glen Howerton, however, is the perfect smug asshole that drives every scene he is in. I think this could have been so much more if it was given a chance to breath as something like a miniseries.
Hollywood seems to have recently found a new niche of serving up corporate propaganda in the form of biopics, and for the most part the results have been predictably bland and uninteresting. However, by tackling the genre through the lens of a The Office style workplace comedy, Blackberry immediately seperates itself from other films like it. Right from the opening scenes you can tell there’s a smart director at the helm here. Its sense of humour is unique (and from what I’ve been told very Canadian) and there are a lot of clever, subtle touches to be found in the acting and directing for those who really pay attention. Glenn Howerton, despite bad make-up, kills it. The music selection is also excellent, because the needle drops are accurate to the time period and often comment on the scenes in interesting ways. As for the script, while the overall structure is fairly predictable, it doesn’t make the mistake of focussing too much on just the succession of events. It knows what’s important for this particular story, and it cuts out everything else. The dynamic that develops between our three main characters is compelling, hinting at a direction that’s similar to the The Social Network, but it doesn’t go there. Instead, this ends up being a story about technological innovation and the risk of falling behind the curve when companies can’t read the room. It’s not mindblowing stuff, but very entertaining and definitely worth your time.
7/10
the social network but everyone wears a bad wig or hair piece
Excellent and very entertaining movie.
I knew a bit about it's history but it was well executed, i'm sorry but i do not feel sorry about them i hate Blackberry it is associated with my worst 5 years of professional life. The refused to follow technology and the new era. Yes it was a game changer and as i saw it the pioneer's but you must progress or you will die.
The hand held camera thingy and shaking (probably shoot by an iPhone, no pun intended) was outdated.
Fantastic performance by Jim, little better production value as in many scenes you can clearly notice the bald mask on his head (the lines and the cover).
Highly recommended for nerds and people who grow up with "get off the internet I need to make a call"
This is a decent watch mostly for the performances, especially Glenn Howerton, but overall it feels aimless and while the performances are great no one in the movie is a full fledged character so it just kind of ends.
Outstanding performance. Very good movie. I just to use the Blackberry phones until the iPhone arrived. It is history.
#BlackberryReview
Baruchel and Howeton's biopic is a witty, sharp and compelling piece of infotainment
My Rating : :star::star::star::star: (84/100)
#Blackberry is a riveting and fascinating tale of rise and fall of a product which used to be a status symbol back in the day. This film is probably one of the best product biopics coming from the west which deliciously crafts darkly comedic elements and a gripping screenplay. The score is peppy , the characters are solidly written and cinematography is marvelous. The camera zooming in on a woman, after a boss tells the mostly male coworkers to work and to not play with their little penises, is already one of the best scenes of the year, literally ROFL.
#GlennHowerton as Jim is ferocious and outstanding and sets the tone of the film on how his arrogance and ill mannered ego crashes the company down. #JayBaruchel is brilliant as Mike who was the brains of the BlackBerry and how ignorant he was as a co-ceo. The best part of the film is the Character of #MattJohnson who just kills it with his hillarious performance. To my surprise Matt is also the director which is just crazy talent.
Overall, a sharp, compelling true story which has the tension, thrill and humour of great intellect. Fantastic drama and fresh cinematography are good reasons why all should acknowledge this brilliant film and watch it when available to stream.
Instagram & Twitter : @streamgenx
God I miss my Blackberry :pensive:
Much like Air, Blackberry is a fun, breezy dramatised documentary with the bonus of a captivatingly unhinged Glenn Howerton. Easy viewing, and made me pine for the days of my clicky, clicky, tactile Blackberry Bold. Down with the touchscreen, long live the physical keyboard and button.
A story that is shockingly unknown, about a time and place where the world was irrecoverably changing. Stellar performances by Howerton and Baruchel, and phenomenal script and direction by (also co-lead!) Matt Johnson. Couldn’t more highly recommend.
A lame attempt at comedy and drama that fails on both fronts. The worst part is the fake bald head of Glenn Howerton, it looks like a cheap wig.
Weirdly paced, shows largely irreverent parts of RIM's history to make a dramatic narrative that is more than partly made up and embellished. The interesting parts of their history are fairly tech-heavy so perhaps that's why they were skipped and never the focus, but the feeling it gives is RIM went from a scrappy start up to collapsing corporation, with little in the middle; all drama, all stress, no good days.
'Losing the signal' is a great (audio)book on the subject and actually shows some of the really clever things both men did in their respective fields to completely create and own a product segment.
Terrible hairpieces for a surprisingly solid biopic. Despite the small scale and low budget, the storytelling and dialogues are constantly engaging, striking a good balance in portraying the characters for both their beauties and flaws. High-end business sometimes needs you to be an asshole and try the impossible, aware of the risks and repercussions. The only character that didn’t convince me was the protagonist’s sidekick. He was fun initially but turned out to be a tad bit too cartoony, with a corny aftertaste during his conflicts with the others. The pacing is tight, but I suffered a little from the time jumps and somewhat rushed ending.
Thoroughly fascinating to watch this unfold.
'BlackBerry' reminded me a lot of fellow 2023 flick 'Air', two movies that were in fact released within months of each other interestingly. Both are great watches, with this being one I particularly enjoyed. It's super well put together.
The two hours go by fast, the story is presented in such a way that there wasn't a single moment I was even the slightest bit uninterested - there's a great flow to proceedings. Jay Baruchel is excellent throughout, so is Glenn Howerton. The whole cast do good work, amusing to see SungWon Cho (aka ProZD) appear too!
I remember BlackBerry being huge at my high school back in the day, though based on the timeline shown in this movie it was very much during the company's spiral - guess our parents couldn't afford iPhones at that point!:joy: I am still yet to own an iPhone mind you, guess I'm in the severe minority with that one. I did own a Blackberry though and I'm with Lazaridis: keyboard >>> touchscreen, all day! Same goes for buttons >>> sensors for TVs, while we're here. I'm stuck in the dark ages, I know I know.
Tangent over, this is a quality film!
Another good brand biopic. I find these kinds of movies interesting. Even when we already know how it ended, either good or bad, it is good to know the characters behind the brands and how the creation process was. Everything is good in this movie, I think. Nothing remarkable, though.
This was a very surprising drama. Yes, drama.
The movie may have Baruchel, and Howerton - both well known for comedy - in the lead roles, but this is a serious film.
While it may start out as fun, leaning into the tech/nerdy side of the subject matter, it takes a turn toward being about corruption, and business. By the end, it's basically a thriller; you could cut the tension with a knife!
For being just under two hours, the movie flies by. I would recommend this to everyone, however, keep in mind this is not a comedy; if you want a light story, look elsewhere, this has many fun moments, but it gets heavy quickly, and then keeps adding pressure.
The closest comparison I can think of is The Social Network (2010). Ultimately, this is just a well-made movie... watch it.
Thought the first hour and a half was phenomenal- my only gripe was at the very end when Mike, the co-CEO of a multimillion dollar company, was talking to feds without a lawyer. From that point on I kind of check out. Also, WHAT WAS MIKE’S GRAY HAIR IN 2007 IT WAS DISGUSTING !!!!
I thought it was really well done. I don't know enough about the Blackberry story to know how true any of it is but I had a good time with the movie.
Great movie. Do yourself a favor and watch this movie!
I have watched every episode of It's Always Sunny and after seeing this, I am convinced that Glenn Howerton is not playing a character, but rather himself. If you told me that Glenn is a really great person in real life, is kind and level-headed, then I would admit that he is a more superb actor than we all think. The veracity and anger he displays as Jim Balsillie is unnerving but excellent to watch.
As for the story, it really doesn't tell all, there are a lot of gaps in the timeline (from small startup to multi-billion dollar tech leader in a change of a scene) but it does capture the meteoric rise and tragic fall of what BlackBerry was. My first "smartphone" was a Curve. It was the first and last BlackBerry I ever owned before Apple took over. Now, as the story shows, they are simply a relic of the past.
This movie is worth a watch. It does not dive into the technical aspects or force you to learn how cellular networks and SMTP work, but rather it's a view into the inside of what the culture was like at RIM.
Enjoyable story I only knew half of going in. The cast was fantastic. Solid tone switches from drama to comedy. Strong 7.8
The first half is brilliant, onwards is still brilliant, but the pacing gets a bit wobbly.
So basically, 'movie night' was needed. You'll only understand if you've watched this.
I laughed a lot. very good dialogs! I always wanted a blackberry. these phones looked so nice
This currently takes the silver medal for best films of the year for me. Everyone go watch it.
In many ways I think this can be seen as a love letter to Apple, showing how Wozniak and Jobs weren't actually as distant from each other as people think because BlackBerry was a true example of the business side and the creative side not working together and THAT'S what made it unsuccessful in the end. The scenes where Mike and Jim could never get through to each other on the phone was amazing. And the film was just full of these types of subtle moments that reference a bigger picture/theme or even allegory for aspects of society.
A truly astonishing film in my opinion, one of those where I'm googling scenes from it and watching them back. "I'M FROM WATERLOO, WHERE THE VAMPIRES HANG OUT."
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is my favourite show and so I love to see the cast in other things and with exception to Rob buying a national league Welsh football club this takes the cake as the best one yet - Glenn Howerton is fucking brilliant and deserves awards for this performance.
That shaky camera was so out of place. This isn't office. The passing and narative were all over the place.
Glenn did a great job.
Shout by Faster, Film Critic!BlockedParent2023-05-22T06:33:44Z
Blackberry is interesting enough and the performances are great. However, the narrative felt rushed and I wanted to explore more of the gaps and characters. I hate to say this, but this film might have been better as a miniseries.