By Matthew Moorcroft

Strong Recommendation

• Directed by Matt Johnson
• Starring Jay Baruchel, Glenn Howerton, Matt Johnson, Cary Elwes
• R

Like all of the great tech stories, there is something to be said about the spectacular quick rise – and almost historically quick demise – of the Blackberry, at one point the most popular phone in the world and one of the most sought after tech devices on the planet. None of that stuff is good, mind you; like all tech stories, it’s a story of greed, capitalism, and over-confident arrogance that eventually implodes in on itself and you are left scrambling for the pieces. Matt Johnson, who has made a name for his mockumentary work that is at once darkly hilarious and terrifying, is probably the best person then to deliver his first non-found footage style film with this subject matter.

And why not treat it as hilarious? Johnson finding humor in the material only makes sense when you have two CEOs as out of this world as Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, two diametrically opposed individuals who are nearly Shakespearean in the way that Johnson decides to portray them here. Lazaridis is the optimistic dreamer corrupted by the business, and Balsillie is the business personified into a tragically incompetent figure who is more focused on getting an NHL team into his home city then actually running a company properly. And Johnson himself? Well he’s actually in the middle of this like his mockumentaries, albeit as an actual figure this time rather then himself, and he is witness to the fall wholesale.

That’s the beauty of Blackberry as a film, which is ultimately it’s commitment to allowing you to watch a disaster in motion. These are the so called smartest people in Waterloo, Canada, and yet they can’t even get a pitch meeting down with somebody making a fool of themselves. It reads like a comedy of errors that go upward, and the further you go upwards the harder you come down. The camera is placed in moments that feel almost predatory, like you are watching in during a time that nobody should be even be bothered to look. Suddenly being a fly on the wall feels like more of a threat then anything else.

Glenn Howerton commands the screen with one of the best turns of the year, a role that requires him to be at 1000 at all times and he delivers in spades. It’s not a simple “loud guy” performance like you would expect, it’s shockingly nuanced with numerous ticks, facial acting, and an impeccable sense of composure that he slips into the role effortlessly. Met by an equally as great as he is neurotic Jay Baruchel, the two lead the charge for a strong supporting cast that includes inspired turns by great character actors like Michael Ironside, Cary Elwes, Martin Donovan, and even a surprise like SungWon Cho, all of whom do great work here under Johnson’s deadpan eye.

And while it’s hard to say whether or not Blackberry is anything new within a world that also has The Social Network – maybe the best movie about a corporate sleaze ever made – it doesn’t matter when it’s just this consistently fantastic across the board. This is an action movie without bullets, and instead the gunshots are replaced by words that reverberate across the theater like an echo. If you looking for a film with some of the best dialogue you’ll hear all year (“I am from Waterloo, where the VAMPIRES HANG OUT!”) then you have your film.

Blackberry will likely stand the test of time beyond it’s source subject as one of the great Canadian films of the decade, and there is very good reason for that. While Matt Johnson continues onward to even bigger and better things – it’s clear that he is only starting in his career – one can only hope he will continue as well to deliver equally as compelling pieces such as this.