The screenplay, adapted from the book Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of Blackberry<\/em> by Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff, takes the Steve Jobs model, telling its story in three discrete movements: the invention of the Blackberry and ascension of the company, in 1996; their successful ward-off of a hostile takeover attempt by Palm Pilot, in 2003; and the undoing of the company in 2007-2008, thanks to the introduction of the iPhone and an SEC investigation. It was a whirlwind of activity, a period of incredible innovation and wealth that culminated in a footnote – near the end, Blackberry\u2019s head of marketing predicts, \u201cWe\u2019re gonna go from the number one phone in the world to that phone people had before they had an iPhone,\u201d and he\u2019s not wrong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But in terms of tone, Johnson constructs something that\u2019s more like a cross between Social Network<\/em> with Silicon Valley <\/em>– an irreverent approach, with a wild comic sensibility and fairly broad comic characterizations, mostly keying off the awkwardness of engineers and similar tech types. (As ever, one must find ways to make dudes coding into compelling cinema.) The opening scenes present us with a trio of prickly, disparate character types, and compellingly spends much of the first act bouncing them off each other. We have Mike Lazardis (Jay Baruschel) and Doug Fregin (played by Johnson himself), the co-founders of \u201cResearch in Motion, Ltd,\u2019 pitching their product to businessman Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton). Mike is the boy genius who barely raises his voice, Doug is all bluster, bragging about their big deals while cracking open the Velcro on his TMNT wallet, and Jim is a hard-nosed, ball-busting business guy, tossed like a grenade into a scrum of slackers and weirdos when he joins the company as Mike\u2019s co-CEO (\u201cHEY!\u201d he bellows, while trying to make a call, \u201cGET OFF THE FUCKING INTERNET!\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Baruchel does quietly marvelous work as this tricky and jagged character; it\u2019s primarily an internal and physical performance, so you can feel the electricity as he\u2019s finally putting his baby out into the world, and the heartache in the look on his face as he watches Steve Jobs\u2019s iPhone keynote, knowing it\u2019s all over. And then, in a real turn, we watch what happens when the quiet genius misses the boat: he goes into an absolute tailspin. (\u201cI created this entire product class!\u201d he roars, at an important meeting with their biggest client. \u201cI created this entire fucking market!<\/em>\u201d) Howerton is especially good in a polar opposite role as braying, power-grabbing jackass, conveying genuine power and danger while barking nonsensical business wisdom like \u201cNever take drinks. Thirst is a display of weakness.\u201d It\u2019s kind of a brilliant performance, the actor relishing the opportunity to play an absolute asshole who you\u2019re still kinda pulling for (until you\u2019re not). In smaller roles, Cary Elwes is powerfully oily as the head of Palm Pilot, Michael Ironside is chilling as the company\u2019s thuggish, late-period COO, and any filmmaker with the good sense to bring in Saul Rubinek as a three-scene gunslinger deserves all of our accolades. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the goofball (but conscience-heavy) Fregin, Johnson is a comic dynamo, roaring through his scenes like a bulldozer. He\u2019s similarly impressive as a filmmaker – skilled at manipulating audience emotion (I heard a whole room gasp at a close-up of a case in a cab, and you probably will too), seeing the laughs when they\u2019re coming and seizing them. Each section is progressively less silly and more tense, as it should be; he manages those tonal shifts adroitly. He previously directed the wildly different but very fine Operation Avalanche <\/em>and The Dirties<\/em>, and if those films didn\u2019t confirm him as one to watch, this one definitely will. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “Blackberry” is in theaters Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/blackberry2-1024x576.jpg\")
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Jim and Mike differ, and wildly, on a central business philosophy. The latter, who knows fuck-all about the tech Mike is crafting, just wants the product fast enough to deliver on the big-money deals he\u2019s making, asks,\u201cHave you ever heard the expression \u2018perfect is the enemy of good\u2019?\u201d Mike\u2019s retort is pointed: \u201cWell, good enough is the enemy of humanity.\u201d And there are ups and downs and outside forces and inner demons, but that difference of opinion proves, in no small way, to be what signals the company\u2019s end before it\u2019s even begun.<\/p>\n\n\n\nA-<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n