Review: Glenn Howerton Dominates in ‘BlackBerry’

By Abe Friedtanzer

There are a number of tech-related crash and burn stories that have made their way to the big and small screens recently. It’s remarkable to watch the rise and falls of certain magnetic leaders and come to understand how their big ideas managed to ultimately be their undoing. The Dropout and Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber are two worthwhile television examples. A recent IFC Films theatrical release, BlackBerry, now available to rent, is also very much worth checking out.

It's hard to remember a time before the iPhone, but this film looks at a crucial moment before Steve Jobs and Apple changed everything. The opening titles identify it as a fictionalized version of true events, though it’s never made quite clear what authenticity remains in the finished product...

The BlackBerry was indeed introduced as a revolutionary smartphone that took advantage of existing Internet accessibility and brought it directly to people’s fingertips. I personally didn’t even get my first flip phone until after much of the events of this film, but I do remember its prominence long before I finally had to get an iPhone.

Jay Baruchel and Glenn Howerton

Capturing that era – the late 1990s and early 2000s – is part of what makes this film so fun. The engineers who eventually design the device commonly known as a CrackBerry spend much of their time playing video games (and using up the precious phone line in the process) and indulging in movie nights to celebrate each meager accomplishment. To hear what phone companies thought couldn’t possibly be done and see them wide-eyed with wonder at being proved wrong gives the film a purposely dated feel, one that only makes it more effective.

Glenn Howerton

What’s most interesting about BlackBerry is its casting. Jay Baruchel and Glenn Howerton are two actors largely known for their television comedy work, in series like Undeclared and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, respectively. They’re both adorned with distracting hairpieces – Baruchel with white hair to look like Research in Motion cofounder Mike Lazaridis and Howerton with a bald cap to mimic Jim Balsillie, the man behind much of the company’s success in launching the BlackBerry and transforming the market. Baruchel brings a productive nervous energy to this brilliant tech guy, while Howerton delivers a mesmerizing rage that makes Balsillie the most terrifying and watchable guy in the room. Howerton gives quite the performance, and it’s worth watching where his career goes next after this formidable and surprising turn.

This is a story with elements that feel familiar, unique (or embellished) as they may be to this particular case, but it’s one that’s enhanced by the approach of writer-director Matt Johnson, who also stars as Doug Fregin, the company’s cofounder whose headband- and undershirt-wearing vibe doesn’t impress Balsillie when he swoops in to take charge and drill some sense of order into a machine that no one has bothered to oil. This film has plenty in common with Tetris, which also made its North American debut at SXSW this past spring. Both cleverly nod to their tech roots to deliver extra entertainment to audiences, especially those who lived through the times and events depicted in the film.

Matt Johnson

This film is a time capsule of a major breakthrough that might now seem insignificant given how far the iPhone has come in seamlessly integrating all aspects of the smartphone into the daily lives of the world population. But the film drills down on what an impact it really had, and takes time to honor the intense leaps taken by one man determined to make his mark, or at least as the film would have us think. Whether or not it hews anywhere close to the truth, this film knows how to tell a story in an entertaining way and pay tribute to a device that may eventually be best remembered as the cell phone President Barack Obama wasn’t allowed to keep when he took office. B+ 

BlackBerry is now available everywhere you rent movies.

Comments

[jules]

This movie has stayed with me much more than I expected when I initially saw it (though I enjoyed it). It's fascinating to compare it to Air because it avoided so many of Air's issues - it is able to view its characters affectionately while also being honest about their faults and is able to view capitalism and corporate culture through a jaundiced eye (perhaps that comes from dramatizing the rise and fall of a product, rather than just its rise).

[Timber Lake]

Howerton shaved his head for this. Maybe a piece over his shaved head. He talks about shaving it for this on the Sunny podcast and you can see his bald head and then hair growing throughout several episodes.