BlackBerry
Directed by Matt Johnson
- comedy
- drama
- history
The story
Two mismatched entrepreneurs – egghead innovator Mike Lazaridis and cut-throat businessman Jim Balsillie – joined forces in an endeavour that was to become a worldwide hit in little more than a decade. The story of the meteoric rise and catastrophic demise of the world's first smartphone.
What it’s like
Restless handheld camera work and tight, jittery close-ups of crowded boardrooms and cramped Waterloo offices, shot with the grainy, overlit immediacy of a documentary crew stuck inside the business. The palette runs on fluorescent white, beige carpet, and the cool glow of early-2000s screens, with a bright, nervous energy that turns into a sour, exhausted pallor as the company unravels. The score is sparse and percussive, leaning on tension-building pulses rather than sweeping swells, so the rooms feel loud with talk and deadlines. Pacing is brisk and talky, full of overlapping dialogue, quick cuts, and sharp comic jabs that keep the mood wry and anxious. Its tone is satirical and bitter-funny, a sour-sweet vibe of ambition curdling into regret, and its arcs follow two mismatched men, an idealistic engineer and a ruthless dealmaker, grinding against each other until their partnership implodes. Violence is absent; the stress is verbal and emotional, with occasional profanity and corporate cruelty but no gore or sexual content. It suits a weeknight watch for people who enjoy workplace dramas, tech-world satire, and true-business stories told with a sharp, self-aware sense of humour.
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