“BlackBerry” Movie Review by Rafy Mediavilla (@Rmediavilla) #BlackBerryMovie
‘BlackBerry’ tells the story of Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, the two men that charted the course of the spectacular rise and catastrophic demise of the world’s first smartphone.
I consider that it is always difficult to tell the story of something we already know how it all ended, regardless if it is a work of fiction or something based on a true story, and this was one of the main reasons I had high expectations for this story. The second reason is that my main passion has always been technology, and I remember vividly the endless battles between BlackBerry and Apple when the iPhone was finally released, which means I know this story all too well, as I was part of this iPhone Vs. BlackBerry moment when these devices were both at their prime. And I’m happy to report that the producers of this movie did not disappointed and deliver in every way possible.
There are many things I loved about this movie from the superb performance by the cast, and the production design that took me to these times, and the extremely well-thought-out script which did not bored you with the details we already know and just gave us enough information for the story to make sense.
The cast did an amazing job with the performances led of course by Jay Baruchel and Glenn Howerton who played the roles of the founders of Research In Motion (RIM) and the principal characters responsible for the rise and fall of BlackBerry as a smartphone device. Jay did an awesome job getting into his character of Mike Lazaridis by playing into the stereotypical geek, where we also saw the attention to detail from the makeup and wardrobe department as they played a huge role in getting him into character with his unique style that truly embodied a look of a geek and what we stand for. While Glenn did an equally amazing job playing the role of Jim as we saw him being a more level-headed executive with a vision of the future and where the device truly needs to go in order to succeed.
The production design team required high praise even it it high pase storytelling they manage to turn every single scene as if it was taken out of personal recording, or archived footage for the people that were there going through it themselves. From the CES scenes to the production of the prototypes, the endless meeting to see where this device will fit the market to the final demise of the company itself. The attention to detail from the production design team was award-worthy in my book and deserves to be recognized come award season.
Lastly, I have to give high praise also to the screenwriters because they absolutely manage to turn what could have been a boring dull biopic into a masterful rollercoaster in storytelling something that I can compare side by side with David Fincher’s “The Social Network”. The script didn’t dull you with useless details and more than anything keeps you at the edge of your seat with a fast pace narrative that grabs a hold of you from beginning to end.
While I do believe this movie deserves high praise for the next award season, It is my strong belief that this movie deserves a watch solely because of its masterful storytelling, and production value, but I do understand that It will hit home for people such as myself and have a passion and love for technology and innovation, and that nostalgic feeling of relieving these good times.
