The story of the meteoric rise and catastrophic demise of the world’s first smartphone.

Corporate biopics seem to be all the rage these days with 2023 already providing us with ‘Air’, ‘Tetris’ and ‘The Beanie Bubble’, and ‘BlackBerry’ is the latest. I still remember my first BlackBerry phone when I started working properly just over 10 years ago, but chances are if you’re under 30 you haven’t came across them because they essentially no longer exist. That forms the basis of ‘BlackBerry’, which mines the fertile ground of 90s innovation leading to the quick rise of corporations that would ultimately see even quicker falls. Starring Glenn Howerton, Jay Baruchel and director Matt Johnson as the three men behind its rise (and subsequent fall), this is a terrifically entertaining biopic about an intriguing piece of our recent history.

The film begins in the mid-90s as Research in Motion CEO Mike Lazaridis (Baruchel) and co-founder Douglas Fregin (Johnson) prepare to pitch a new type of cellular device to Jim Balsillie (Howerton). Despite being unsuccessful, Balsillie sees an opportunity (partly driven by his firing from his previous employer) and agrees to join them if they make him co-CEO and give him a third of the company. In what seems to be overnight, such is the slickness of the film, Balsillie’s arrival is the catalyst to transform the company into the organisation that produced the BlackBerry – at the time, an incredible piece of innovation. The remainder of the film takes us through how this story played out, building up to the inevitable fall as Apple get their act together and essentially take over the mobile device market in the late 2000s.

This is all told in such a fast paced, entertaining way with ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s’ Glenn Howerton in particular leading the way as the brilliantly ruthless Balsillie, a man who starts to believe himself untouchable until he swiftly realises he isn’t. It’s got a great soundtrack of hits from the eras that it covers, it is slickly directed and is consistently sharp and on point with its use of humour. I thought ‘Air’ was likely to take the crown as the best of this subgenre this year, but ‘BlackBerry’ has put a late challenge in for the crown.

Rating: 4/5

Directed By: Matt Johnson

Starring: Glenn Howerton, Jay Baruchel, Matt Johnson, Rich Sommer, Michael Ironside, Martin Donovan, Michelle Giroux, SungWon Cho, Mark Critch, Saul Rubinek, Ben Petrie and Cary Elwes

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt21867434/