BlackBerry Movie Review: How Tech’s Golden God Killed the Keyboard Star

A Tech-Bro Greek Tragedy

Remember the satisfying click-clack of a physical keyboard under your thumbs? The heft of a device that felt more like a tool than a toy? For a brief, glorious moment, BlackBerry was the king of the connected world, a status symbol welded to the hands of every high-flyer, politician, and corporate shark. Now, it’s a relic, a ghost in the machine we all carry today. The company officially phased out its phones, leaving many to wonder how the empire that built the smartphone crumbled so spectacularly.

In a market now utterly dominated by the sleek, sterile monolith of the iPhone, director Matt Johnson’s BlackBerry serves as a chaotic, hilarious, and surprisingly poignant autopsy. It’s the story of how co-creators Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel) and Douglas Fregin (Matt Johnson) took a beautifully nerdy idea, a phone that could send emails, and shot for the moon. They had the brains, the passion, and the kind of garage-hacker energy that births revolutions. What they didn’t have was a killer instinct.

Enter Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton), a ruthless, perpetually enraged businessman who initially dismisses their pitch before realizing he can ride their rocket ship straight into the sun. His recruitment marks the beginning of a beautiful disaster, a feeding frenzy of ambition, greed, and clashing egos. I have a morbid fascination with watching tech nerds and corporate titans smash into each other, and in BlackBerry, it’s hard to tell who’s the hammer and who’s the nail once they all start swinging.

What becomes painfully clear is that being first doesn’t guarantee you’ll be the last one standing. The BlackBerry founders had the vision, which was then weaponized by a man with the connections. As the money poured in, so did the vultures. Sinister corporate plots were hatched to steamroll this upstart Canadian company, while Balsillie, with his foghorn voice and scorched-earth tactics, mounted a defense that was just as underhanded. And for a while, it was a glorious, white-knuckle ride.

The film employs a frantic, docu-style aesthetic that plunges you directly into the chaos. Johnson’s use of shaky, handheld camerawork and rapid zooms makes you feel less like you’re watching a movie and more like you’re an unseen intern eavesdropping on a series of escalating panic attacks. The filmmaking style mimics the frantic reality of the story, is a masterstroke, creating a palpable anxiety that mirrors the company’s meteoric rise and terrifying fall. It’s like watching a car crash in slow motion, except the car is a multi-billion-dollar corporation and the drivers are fuelled by hubris and Red Bull.

The Human Stormtrooper and the Quiet Genius

The performances in BlackBerry are nothing short of phenomenal. Much like Jesse Eisenberg’s definitive portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, the casting here is perfection. Glenn Howerton’s Jim Balsillie is a human headhunting stormtrooper, a creature of pure, unfiltered rage and ambition. You can’t help but admire his tenacity even as you smugly smirk at his monumental inability to see the bigger picture. It’s a performance crackling with the same tyrannical energy he perfected as Dennis Reynolds, weaponized for the boardroom.

Juxtaposed against this hurricane of ego is Jay Baruchel’s Mike Lazaridis, the archetypal innocent geek whose arrogance is a slow-burning fuse. We watch him transform from a quiet, principled engineer into a man poisoned by his own pride. Caught between them is Matt Johnson’s Douglas Fregin, the headband-wearing, movie-loving third wheel who acts as the company’s soul. He’s the pivotal antidote to the corporate absurdity, the conscience who occasionally reminds the major players that there’s no point to any of it if nobody’s having fun anymore. He is the quiet voice of reason, constantly pushed down, who ultimately gets the last laugh.

An iPhone Kills the Keyboard Star

While Balsillie manufactures quality crises and dreams of owning an NHL team, Lazaridis becomes obsessed with what consumers want, desperately trying to keep the ship afloat. Then, Steve Jobs took the stage and unveiled a device with no keyboard at all. The market goes feral for this new slab of glass, and the death knell for BlackBerry begins to toll. Balsillie’s obsession with his hockey ambitions during this crucial period certainly didn’t help, nor did Lazaridis’s stubborn refusal to let go of that signature keyboard click.

At a runtime of two hours, BlackBerry could seem long, but the narrative is so densely packed with whip-smart dialogue, fascinating characters, and high-stakes drama that it never overstays its welcome. It’s a Shakespearean tragedy played out in circuit boards and bad haircuts, a high-speed collision of innovation, ego, and inevitable obsolescence.

About the Filmmaker & Cast

Director Matt Johnson has carved a unique niche with his signature mockumentary style. Films like The Dirties and Operation Avalanche showcase his distinct filmmaker stamp: a blend of dark comedy, improvised-feeling dialogue, and a shaky, vérité camera style that blurs the line between fiction and reality. He often casts himself in key roles, adding a meta-layer of authenticity and awkwardness that makes his films feel both immediate and uncomfortably real. For BlackBerry, this style perfectly captures the chaotic, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants energy of a tech startup imploding.

Internet Chatter & Trivia

Since its release, critics have lauded BlackBerry as a surprise masterwork of the tech biopic genre. Glenn Howerton’s performance, in particular, has generated significant awards buzz, with many calling it a career-best turn that channels his iconic television persona into something terrifyingly real. The film is often compared favorably to The Social Network and Steve Jobs for its sharp script and incisive look at the personalities behind world-changing technology.

BlackBerry is rated

4 Bald-Faced Lies Told to the SEC out of 5

Pros vs. Cons

• Pro: The Golden God Goes Corporate
• Con: Bring Your Dramamine.
• Pro: A Tech Bro ‘Succession’
• Con: Dial-Up Nostalgia Required? 
• Pro: More Than Just a Meme.
• Con: The Inevitable Downfall. 
• Pro: The Unsung Canadian Hero. 
• Con: Where Are the Women? 
• Pro: A Cautionary Tale for Today. In an era of tech billionaires playing God on social media
• Con: That Wig

“It’s a Shakespearean tragedy played out in circuit boards and bad haircuts, a high-speed collision of innovation, ego, and inevitable obsolescence.”

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For more information, see the official BlackBerry movie website. The title was acquired as a screener and is distributed by IFC Films. The Blackberry movie was produced by Rhombus Media.

For another biographical true story on Netflix, stream Baby Reindeer or Unknown Number next.

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Blackberry

Director: Matt Johnson

Date Created: 2023-12-05 12:17

Editor's Rating:
4

Pros

• Ideal casting choices make Blackberry a must-watch
• Action and tense driven storyline

Cons

• The runtime is two hours and could have been wound tighter