BlackBerry (International, North America)
Key Cast: Cary Elwes, Glenn Howerton, Jay Baruchel, Mark Critch, Martin Donovan, Matt Johnson, Michael Ironside, Michelle Giroux, Rich Sommer, Saul Rubinek, Sungwon Cho
Director: Matt Johnson
Producer: Fraser Ash, Kevin Krikst, Matthew Miller, Niv Fichman
Screenwriter: Matt Johnson, Matthew Miller
Cinematographer: Jared Raab
Composer: Jay McCarrol
Company Credit: Distributor: Paramount Pictures
The genius and hubris of the tech industry collide in this wildly entertaining account of the dramatic rise and fall of the world’s first smartphone.
It was the product that would revolutionise the way we lived. Years before the iPhone, Canadian innovator Mike Lazaridis (played by comic mainstay Jay Baruchel) teamed up with cutthroat entrepreneur Jim Balsillie (a ferocious Glenn Howerton, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) to bring the world a mobile phone that would also allow users to – you’ll never believe this – send and receive emails. Like a blend of The Social Network and The Office, BlackBerry reimagines the meetings, schemes, pipe dreams and pizza boxes that gave rise to the titular tech sensation.
Direct from competition at this year’s Berlinale, the latest feature from mock-documentary specialist Matt Johnson (Operation Avalanche, MIFF 2016; The Dirties, MIFF 2014) takes us back to the mid-90s and to the beginnings of BlackBerry’s wild ride to cultural ‘CrackBerry’ ubiquity. Loosely based on the 2015 tell-all book Losing the Signal, the film delivers a slyly satirical and frequently uproarious look at the creative chaos of the tech world as the geeks inherit the Earth.
“A kind of breathless tech fever dream [and] a relentless but addictive downbeat human comedy about the struggle to stay on top in a fast-moving industry.” – Screen Daily