BlackBerry
BlackBerry
A company that toppled global giants before succumbing to the ruthlessly competitive forces of Silicon Valley. This is not a conventional tale of modern business failure by fraud and greed. The rise and fall of BlackBerry reveals the dangerous speed at which innovators race along the information superhighway.
Jacob O’Neal reviewedJuly 4, 2025
Who’d have thought the geeky kid from Undeclared would go on to make some really solid dramatic work? By that, I mean Jay Baruchel. He and Glen Howerton of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia star as the co-CEO’s of the newly formed company that created BlackBerry and changed the tech world forever.
This film was fascinating not only for its look into the story of BlackBerry but because the actors were amazing. Both lead actors were so good that I forgot they were people I recognized. They really lost themselves in their roles. Howerton has always showcased some amazing talent on TV but this movie shows even more rage than Dennis Reynolds could muster. Howerton is a near perfect coiled spring. Baruchel was so perfect as the nerdy tech geek who was never sure about his partner and doesn’t trust him. It’s almost as if we are reading his thoughts with every expression.
The movie itself was fascinating. But I’ve always had this theory when it comes to a good versus a great film. It takes three elements - acting, directing and writing. If two of the three are outstanding then it’s a good movie. If all three fire on all cylinders then you have a great film, like The Shawshank Redemption or Citizen Kane. I know I’ve said “three” and I stand by it, but music, editing, sound design and everything else obviously play into it. But you can have a great movie with just three elements as mentioned. This one got two elements - directing and acting. The writing was just a little cliched and followed the typical docudrama style. It’s not a bad script, but we’ve seen this formula in these movies a thousand times. It was a solid script, but not great. If either of the other two elements didn’t work this movie would have been a disaster. Instead it was near great and Howerton needs more roles.