Rent BlackBerry on Amazon Video (paid link) // Buy the book (paid link)
Written by: Jacquie McNish & Sean Silcoff (based on the book "Losing the Signal" by), Matt Johnson & Matthew Miller (screenplay by)
Directed by: Matt Johnson
Starring: Jay Baruchel, Glenn Howerton, Matt Johnson, Michael Ironside, Cary Elwes
Rated: R
Watch the trailer
Plot
The story of the meteoric rise and catastrophic demise of the world's first smartphone.
Verdict
Blackberry captures the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship as well as the pitfalls of success and capitalism. What went wrong with the tech boom? This movie answers that. This is an amazing education and movie that shows what happens when you lose focus and cut corners. All too often we've seen companies that had complete control over the market only to lose their grip completely. Howerton starts behind the line and I was concerned I'd only see him as Dennis, but he delivers quite the performance.
Watch It.
Review
A phone in your pocket that could do everything was unbelievable, but an engineer with a vision made it happen. This reminds me of The Social Network and Halt and Catch Fire where a few young people with vision aim to make their dream a reality and redefine the tech world.
Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel) and Fregin (Matt Johnson) pitch the idea for what would become the Blackberry though they don't know it. They just need someone that can sell it. They're developers, not business minds. Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton) is ambitious to a fault. He dismisses the two initially which isn't surprising as he's a jerk and their pitch is poor. When he's fired for undermining a colleague he sees an opportunity, and he isn't wrong. They need someone ruthless and driven like Jim.
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| Jay Baruchel, Glen Howerton, Matt Johnson play Mike Lazaridis, Jim Balsillie, Doug Fregin |
It's difficult not to see Glenn Howerton as Dennis from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I wonder if the casting is intentional, some kind of meta joke. Dennis and Jim are both sociopaths. Balsillie has the business savvy, but he doesn't know the tech. That's where Lazaridis comes in. The tech is what sells this product, though Balsillie is the one that got them in the door. This is the invention that changed the world. Blackberry did that, and the crazy thing is they couldn't hold on to it. The market was redefined by Apple. We see the successes and mistakes. They created a goldmine, but in the modern age you can't camp on it. You have to continually reinvent or someone else will figure out a better way.
You can't separate Balsillie and Lazaridis from Blackberry. Balsillie is a colossal jerk, but he made the company successful. Lazaridis couldn't do that, you need a sociopath, Jim. Then you have the confluence of these guys using the products they create. Everyone is using it. While the company is a rocket ship, company culture is changing. Now it's about chasing dollars. That changes the fervor for the work, especially when Jim hires ringers at a high price. It fixes immediate problems, but it has to create discord. Then, predictably, despite being a titan in the market, they need to make more money. While some are pushing to move production to China, the Apple iPhone is trouble. Blackberry stops trying to innovate and instead mimics. Jim is busy fulfilling his dream of buying a hockey team instead of managing the business.
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| Jay Baruchel, Glen Howerton play Mike Lazaridis, Jim Balsillie |
We watch the rise and fall of this company. Even Lazaridis who we initially like is undone by his own mistakes. Jim was always too boastful, driven by ego. He got far, but it caught up to him. When you're successful it's easy to blame everyone else. When the mistakes pile up, someone will shoulder the blame. They didn't just make mistakes, the committed crimes. Despite the threats, neither of them went to jail for fraud.
I love the way this ends. Lazaridis had always been focused on quality. The final sequence links back to one of the first scenes, underscoring how he succumbed to pressure to save a dollar by sacrificing quality. He became the type of company he never wanted to be and that cost him everything. Blackberry went from owning the market to completely out of it. It's not an uncommon trajectory. Look at Sears or Toys R Us. It's a struggle to get to the top, and it's a struggle to stay there. When ego takes over and you think you can't fail, that's when an upstart upends you.
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