
BlackBerry
Rating TBA.
Dir: Matt Johnson, Canada, 2023, 122 min.
Jay Baruchel, Glenn Howerton, Cary Elwes.
“Who knew a Canadian biopic of an infamous smartphone could be this entertaining, even poignant and moving? BlackBerry is all that and more… This long and winding tale of the rise and fall of the BlackBerry… is at once wonderfully funny, suspenseful and ultimately tragic… Centering on nerdy and inventive Mike Lazaridis (a never better Jay Baruchel) and Jim Balsillie, Johnson’s film starts in 1996 with the emergence of this unheard of idea of a phone that can also send and receive emails… Johnson tells the whole saga, soup to nuts, in a highly entertaining and fast-moving fashion that keeps you riveted throughout. You really find yourself rooting for these guys and their ragtag team of tech nerds… In the fast-moving technological age in which we live, the epic tale of the BlackBerry now plays like a period piece, a nostalgic look back for people like me who deeply loved that little Canadian device.” —Pete Hammond, Deadline