It’s already been a pretty good year for biopics and it’s only May. I generally don’t prefer biopics because I find the screenwriters tend to assume the subject sells itself. You don’t want to be in a film wishing you’d just scanned Wikipedia instead. I’ve been there too often. However, Spinning Gold, Air, and BlackBerry are all quality films that didn’t assume I’d supply the interest in the subject; may the trend continue.
In 1984, Research in Motion was founded as a bunch of slovenly hosers playing computer games and waiting around for Raiders of the Lost Ark on company movie night. By the mid 1990s, Research in Motion was still a bunch of slovenly hosers playing computer games and waiting around for Raiders of the Lost Ark on company movie night. When not saving the world from the evils of Donkey Kong, RIM managed to collect some brilliant minds. Getting the best out of them, however, would not be the forte of founding members Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel) and Douglas Fregin (writer/director/chief nerd! Matt Johnson).
It was RIM that figured out cell phones. The basic building block of cell phones is minimal-encumbrance data messaging; the rest is pretty much enhancements and toys (from what I udnerstand on the subject, that is). And these nerdy Canadians figured it out, eh. However, and I don’t point this out to be glib, they were nerdy Canadians, which means that their ability to sell their master stratagem came down to ineffective and overly-polite pitch meetings that screamed “IMPOTENCE” from the first moment of setting foot outside the cab.
The film allows us to see the peanut-butter-meets-chocolate moment when the boys’ ineffective pitch resonates days later. Newly fired Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton), the target of their pitch, reflects that the nerds had a great idea, they just couldn’t pitch it. He knows exactly what they need; Balsille is a shark. Mike and Doug aren’t quite minnows so much as … you know the octopus that figured out how to unscrew a jar from the inside? That. They’re unscrewing-jar octopi, but they aren’t gonna get to play in the ocean without a shark to protect them.
First, there’s a big problem … RIM is in debt $1.6M (to be fair, it’s probably only $1.6M Canadian) after being screwed by US Robotics. Second, all they have is an idea, not a prototype … and US Robotics knows what they’re up to. On the line is the ability to cash in on the cell phone revolution. I can’t overexaggerate the importance. This ain’t gonna be no easy RIM-job. And all of the hype leads to an absolutely brilliant scene in which we see the marriage of shark and octopus play out in an inspired pitch meeting. Balsillie knows what the investors need to hear, but he doesn’t know the product. Lazaridis knows
the product, but he doesn’t know what the investors need to hear. It is symbiosis like the word had been invented just for this film. If only these two could get together and go bowling.
One of the weird themes in this picture is “be careful what you wish for.” RIM was a company of nerd slackers behaving like nerd slackers. So long as they underachieved, everybody could have a modest life of arrested development with the constant atmosphere of an underfunded rec center. Once they met their potential, however, expectations superseded long-formed habits of playtime and half-assery. The question really becomes: who would you rather be? The mega-rich idol of computer scientists across the globe, constantly working and fighting to innovate at all costs … or the modest nerd living in his parents’ basement? I’m sure there’s a middle ground, but BlackBerry never seemed to locate it.
BlackBerry suffers from both a lack of women and a lack of sympathetic roles. Perfect as Jay Baruchel and Glenn Howerton are as symbiotic shark and octopus, neither is a guy you’re rooting for. Lazaridis comes off as too spineless and Balsillie as too aggressive for either to be your cup of seawater. In fact, this picture, good as it is, reminds me a lot of the biggest flaw in Cars – that the townsfolk of Radiator Springs were trying to save a city lost to innovation – but it was a city that only existed because of innovation on the first place. BlackBerry has its moment because for a few weeks in the 1990s, these weird hoser nerds were leading the world in new-tech innovation. It couldn’t possibly last and it didn’t. But it’s hard to mourn something that was destined to be steamrolled as soon as bigger companies caught on.
Some super smarties from Ontario
Invented the revolutionary BlackBerry-o
When push came to shove
They needed hawks, not a dove
For all the genius, they didn’t read the scenario
Rated R, 120 Minutes
Director: Matt Johnson
Writer: Matt Johnson, Matthew Miller, Jacquie McNish
Genre: Technology, eh
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Nerds!
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: US Robotics
