The Current Cinema - Highly recommended - BLACKBERRY (Matt Johnson, Canada, 2023)

OK.  So here’s the first shock. The first thing you see when Blackberry starts is the logo for Republic Pictures. What is this. Have the ghosts of Herbert  J Yates and Vera Hruba Ralston been re-incarnated. No. Much more prosaic. Republic Pictures never in fact left us even though it has long ceased to actually make pictures. The name and presumably the library* and the attached rights have been bought and sold over again for decades it seems. Most recently, so Wikipedia tells us, around the year 2000 Viacom bought the portion of Spelling it did not own previously; thus, Republic became a wholly owned division of Paramount Pictures. 

And now…so we’re told, on March 24, 2023, Paramount Global announced it would revive the Republic Pictures brand, with the intention of it serving as the company's acquisitions label, releasing titles acquired by Paramount Global Content Distribution, similar to the distribution model of, amongst other companies, Stage 6 Films or American International Pictures. 

So when you sit down to watch Blackberry you see in all its glory that famous Eagle, a staple of Saturday matinees at the Hoyts Padua in Brunswick, the greatest temple of them all....pardon my digression. Paramount/Republic have picked up a little Canadian picture  and thrust it into the international limelight. The film is so modest it only lists twelve producers and executive producers.

 

Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel), Doug Fregin (Matt Johnson)

Blackberry  starts off as if the characters are being caught performing some illicit act. The camerawork - quick cuts, hand held, telephoto lens, disorderly images - looks like an homage to the work of DA Pennebaker or Richard Leacock. It stays true to the form throughout. Disconcerting.  But very quickly characters are established. Well three characters to be precise. Two of them are nerds working on technology that will allow a phone to receive emails. They owe the bank a million and a half. Simple as that sounds it apparently wasn’t easy and wasn’t an easy sell. The two nerds are the diffident Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel) and the loud and extroverted Doug Fregin (played by Matt Johnson who also co-wrote and directed the movie). Doug seems to model himself on John McEnroe, right down to the coloured headband. 

Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton)

Their efforts to sell their idea are abysmal, as are the work practices in their all-male office, a place where doing anything productive or of value seems more like a bonus than a requirement. Enter Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton), recently sacked from a big corporate for disobeying his boss. Jim is sneaky and devious beyond belief but smart and he puts his own money up to rescue the nerds and becomes the CEO. From there it’s the rollercoaster ride to corporate success with every supersmart lie, deception, outright criminal activity and failure catalogued with a degree of edge. 

 

In the process Doug cant change and exits the company (with a small fortune). Mike turns from diffident nerd to corporate backstabber (a change denoted by his varying hairstyles and his suits) and Jim takes his eye off the ball in search of becoming a bignoter by buying up ice hockey teams and venues. Such is life and the movie follows the trail to inevitable doom with a lot of glee. I’m hardly giving away the ending by saying that. After all who owns a Blackberry these days…

 

….and we get the movie version at least of how they came to name it Blackberry.. The movie is very smart and additionally very good fun. If it’s the sort of movie that Paramount Global is going to acquire and give the Republic badge to, well good luck.

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*Republic Pictures' holdings consist of a catalog of 3,000 films and TV series, including the original Republic library (except for the Roy Rogers and Gene Autry catalogs, owned by their respective estates) and inherited properties from NTA and Aaron Spelling. Now, thanks to Wikipedia, you know.