BlackBerry
In 1996 Ontrario, Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel) was a naive tech brainiac overseeing a group of immature geeks that wanted to spend more time watching Star Wars than working on making money by fulfilling contracts. After he and his headband-wearing partner Douglas Fregin (Matt Johnson) give a particularly embarrassing presentation to wannabe bigshot Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton), things look pretty bleak for the ultra-in-debt crew of misfits, but Balsillie suddenly quits his job and bullies his way into being the new co-CEO of the group. Balsillie is able to see the potential of the company, mostly because he recognizes genius in Lazaridis, and uses his intimidating personality and aggressive sales tactics to whip things into shape enough for the BlackBerry to be born, almost immediately becoming a smash hit.
Howerton, partially unrecognizable as a balding executive, radiates a permanent frothing rage that steals just about every scene he's in. It's not just one-note rage, either; Howerton effortlessly portrays a character compensating for a lifetime of insecurity and failure in just a glance or sigh, showcasing a much different side of the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia star. It's the kind of performance that hopefully lands Howerton more serious roles (if he wants them), and one that might even land him in awards conversations.
The story works as kind of a bizarro version of The Social Network (2010), less interested in the cultural influences that spawned the desire for a smartphone to exist, and more interested in simply telling the events of what led to the smartphone being made while also making you laugh along the way. What it lacks in depth and introspection it more than makes up for in entertainment. Balsillie terrorizes his new employees, and clashes constantly with Fregin and his team of man-children. They want to live in a National Lampoon movie while Balsillie and Lazaridis want to change the world. Johnson is particularly effective as the loud-mouthed goof Fregin, more interested in playing video games and having movie night with the team than doing any actual work. His long-time friendship with Lazaridis starts to deteriorate after the money starts to come in and the place starts to feel too much like an actual company, including constant monitoring by the new no-nonsense COO Charles Purdy (a wonderful Michael Ironside).
Some of the more dramatic moments in the third act don't work as well after the slacker vibes of the parts before it. The introduction of the iPhone as well as circling SEC investigators spell a quick doom for a company run by overgrown children that was never built to last, and all of the fun comes to an end, completing a costly age of adolescence that went on for far too long. It's not much of a cautionary tale--even if BlackBerry technically "lost," I'm sure most people would happily take the fates of most of the people involved--so it's hard to say what exactly to take away from the movie, other than maybe some nostalgia for a time before iPhones. If it's just another movie time capsule, it's at least one that's enjoyable to dig up and look through while having a laugh.
