BlackBerry (film)

''BlackBerry'' is a 2023 Canadian biographical comedy-drama film directed by Matt Johnson from a script by Johnson and producer Matthew Miller. It was adapted from Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff's book ''Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry''. The film is about the creation of the BlackBerry line of mobile phones by co-founders Douglas Fregin and Mike Lazaridis, and investor Jim Balsillie. Lazaridis is portrayed by Jay Baruchel, Balsillie is portrayed by Glenn Howerton, and Fregin is portrayed by Johnson. It also stars Rich Sommer, Michael Ironside, Martin Donovan, Michelle Giroux, SungWon Cho, Saul Rubinek, and Cary Elwes in supporting roles.

''BlackBerry'' premiered in competition at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival on February 17, 2023. The film was released in Canada and the United States on May 12, 2023.

Plot

In Waterloo, 1996, Research in Motion (RIM) CEO Mike Lazaridis and his best friend and co-founder Douglas Fregin prepare to pitch their "PocketLink" cellular device to businessman Jim Balsillie. Lazaridis is bothered by the buzzing of Balsillie's China-manufactured intercom and fixes it before he arrives. Their pitch is unsuccessful, but after Balsillie is fired from his job, he agrees to work with them if he is made CEO of RIM and given half of the company. They hesitate, but after discovering that their deal with USRobotics was a malicious attempt to bankrupt them, they bring Balsillie in as co-CEO and give him a third of RIM.

Balsillie arranges a pitch for the PocketLink with Bell Atlantic and forces Fregin and Lazaridis to build a crude prototype overnight, which he and Lazaridis take to New York. Lazaridis forgets the prototype in their taxi, leaving Balsillie to attempt the pitch alone. Lazaridis recovers the prototype at the last second and finishes the pitch, and they rebrand the PocketLink as the "BlackBerry".

In 2003, Palm CEO Carl Yankowski plans a hostile takeover of the immensely successful RIM, forcing Balsillie to sell an amount of phones that exceed Bell Atlantic's (now Verizon Communications) network limit behind Lazaridis's back. This crashes the network, so Balsillie poaches engineers from around the world to fix the problem, as well as hiring a man named Charles Purdy as RIM's COO to keep the engineers in line, though this upsets Fregin, who values the casual and fun work environment he and Lazaridis created. The new engineers fix the network issue under Purdy's strict management, and RIM avoids Yankowski's buyout.

In 2007, RIM's upcoming pitch of the BlackBerry Bold to Verizon is thrown into chaos when Steve Jobs announces the iPhone. Balsillie, a lifelong hockey fan, is occupied with trying to purchase the Pittsburgh Penguins, forcing Lazaridis to pitch the Bold with Fregin instead. When it goes poorly, he panics and impulsively promises them the "Storm", a BlackBerry with a touchscreen. As he finally agrees with Purdy's suggestion to outsource the labor of the Storm to China, he insults Fregin during an argument, who quits.

Balsillie becomes nervous when he sees the iPhone's projected sales and tries to arrange a meeting with AT&T's CEO, only to learn that the Penguins sale is being finalized that day. He chooses the Penguins, but they reject his offer after revealing they know of his plan to move the Penguins to Hamilton, which they learned of when Balsillie mockingly invited Yankowski to a Hamilton game and he informed the NHL. The SEC raids RIM after learning that Balsillie hired the engineers in 2003 with illegally backdated stock options, threatening Lazaridis with legal action. Balsillie arrives too late to meet with the CEO, who snubs Balsillie by hinting that AT&T's partnership with Apple effectively admits that data usage has superseded phone minutes as a priority. Balsillie returns to RIM to find that Lazaridis sold him out to the SEC, leaving Lazaridis as the sole CEO of RIM.

One year later, the Storms arrive from China, but Lazaridis finds them to be laden with bugs and can hear buzzing when he holds one to his ear. As he begins manually fixing the buzzing phones one by one, the closing titles reveal that the Storms were almost universally inoperable and Verizon sued RIM to cover the financial loss, Lazaridis resigned as CEO in 2012, Balsillie avoided jail, Fregin sold his stock in 2007, making him one of the richest men in the world, and at the height of its success, the BlackBerry phone made up 45% of the cell phone market and is now 0% in the present day, with BlackBerry phones no longer being produced.

Cast

* Jay Baruchel as Mike Lazaridis
* Glenn Howerton as Jim Balsillie
* Matt Johnson as Doug Fregin
* Rich Sommer as Paul Stannos
* Michael Ironside as Charles Purdy
* Martin Donovan as Rick Brock
* Michelle Giroux as Dara Frankel
* SungWon Cho as Ritchie Cheung
* Mark Critch as Gary Bettman
* Saul Rubinek as John Woodman
* Cary Elwes as Carl Yankowski
* Ben Petrie as Allan

Production

Principal photography took place from June to August 2022 Ontario cities of Hamilton, London, Burlington and Waterloo. Additional scenes were filmed in Silicon Valley, California. In June, the London International Airport was used to film multiple airport scenes, employing local residents as background actors.

Release

''BlackBerry'' premiered in competition at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival on February 17, 2023. IFC Films acquired the rights to distribute the film in the United States, with Paramount Global Content Distribution acquiring multiple international territories for distribution. The film was released in Canada on May 12, 2023, by Elevation Pictures.

Television miniseries

An extended, serialized version of the film began airing as a three-part miniseries on CBC Television and the CBC Gem streaming service on November 9, 2023. It includes additional footage that was not part of the theatrical release. In the United States the series is scheduled to air on AMC and stream on AMC+, on November 13, 2023.

Reception

Barry Hertz of ''The Globe and Mail'' named the film as the third best of the 23 best Canadian comedy films ever made.Barry Hertz
"The 23 best Canadian comedies ever made"
''The Globe and Mail'', June 28, 2023.

Awards

References

External links

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{{Matt Johnson
2023 films
2023 comedy-drama films
2020s biographical films
2020s business films
2020s Canadian films
2020s English-language films
Biographical films about computer and internet entrepreneurs
BlackBerry
Canadian comedy-drama films
English-language Canadian films
Films about companies
Films about mobile phones
Films based on non-fiction books
Films set in Ontario
Films set in the 1990s
Films set in the 2000s
Films shot in Ontario
Canadian historical films
Canadian films based on actual events