Better Late Than Never on "Blackberry"

I mentioned during my review of "Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie" yesterday that I streamed another movie simply because Matt Johnson was the director and co-star. That movie was "Blackberry", and it was pretty damn good.

RD had mentioned this movie to me a long time ago and told me that I should watch it. I kept putting it off for a bunch of reasons. The main one being that I didn't think I was going to be interested in a movie about the rise and fall of the Blackberry Phone. I never had one of them. I believe RD had one, maybe it was a Palm Pilot. Either way, he has always been more on top of technological trends than I have. But this movie has been on my list for some time, and I'm glad that I finally pressed play Tuesday night.

This was a very good, very well told story and it was pretty damn funny. I should have known it was going to be good because it has Johnson's name all over it. The movie stars Jay Baruchel as the co creator and co CEO of the company. It starts out as Research In Motion, but soon changes to Blackberry. Johnson plays the co creator of the company and phone. Glenn Howerton plays the co CEO of Blackberry, eventually. Howerton first has a job at a sales company, and Johnson and Baruchel got to pitch their idea to him. He pushes them aside at first, but then he figures out a way he can sell their phone. When the three of these actors get together, this is when the movie really takes off. Seeing the growth and the heights that Blackberry reached in the late 90's and early 2000's was fascinating to me. I thought Baruchel did a fantastic job in his role. He was the quiet genius who knew what to do in almost any situation. But he was also very introverted and almost too nice. He was super Canadian, and it showed. Johnson was the fun guy in the office. He set up movie nights and got the staff to do the work. He knew all kinds of quotes from movies and would quote them endlessly. He made this hard job fun for the other employees. He knew they were giving up a ton to be there, but he believed in the vision. He was also incredibly smart and knew how to build phones and make them better. Howerton plays a badass boss who will go to any lengths to make the company successful. He is no nonsense and mean. This was not a total departure, Dennis Reynolds is a sociopath, but Howerton does little to no comedy in this role. He is mean, brash and an egomaniac. He also knows how to sell product, how to move it and how to get people to go the extra mile for his company. He did do some shady stuff, as most CEO's do. But he never stopped trying to make Blackberry a massive and major company. There is a moment in this movie, where Howerton gives a very angry monologue, and he screams something about being in "Waterloo, where the Vampires hang out". I was laughing and terrified at the same time. It was very Dennis Reynolds coded, but more mean than anything Reynolds does on "Always Sunny".

What separated this movie from other fictional biographies, it moved very quickly and it had a bunch of jokes. Sure, they did the typical stuff that these movies do, but they did it better. Johnson has a deft hand when directing, but he also has his place as an actor. He is very talented and I'm glad he is now on my radar. But don't sleep on Howerton or Baruchel. They both do very good work in roles that aren't their typical stuff. This movie showed a different side of these two actors and I'm here for it.

I cannot recommend "Blackberry" enough. I was floored at how much I liked it. I almost turned it on again today, but decided to do some housework. Maybe now that I'm done I'll watch it again. And if you haven't seen it yet, remedy that and watch it immediately. You will love it. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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