BlackBerry

In a year strangely defined by films about famous products, BlackBerry hits higher highs than Air and Tetris, but also plumbs lower lows.

The dramatization of the rise and fall of the titular email-enhanced phone company expertly chronicles the energy surrounding breakthrough technology, though the decision by director/co-writer Matt Johnson (The Dirties; Operation Avalanche) to wash out the cinematography like a bad Michael Mann homage raises questions early and often.

Johnson also casts himself as the film’s most sympathetic character, BlackBerry co-founder Doug Fregin, whose naïve but happy business partnership with the brilliant Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel, ably handling a rare dramatic role) and their pack of nerdy colleagues is hijacked in entertaining fashion by professional shouter Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton), who does whatever’s necessary to dominate the market as co-CEO.

The various machinations required to reach that next unfurl with precision storytelling, huge laughs, and fist-pumping needle drops, all of which are grounded by Lazaridis’ noble commitment to quality at all costs. Yet when a certain Apple product crashes their party, BlackBerry mirrors the epic collapse of the company and abandons each of these successful filmmaking decisions, resulting in a baffling, sputtering final act that suggests a different, lesser crew pulled a Balsillie and ambushed the production.

For a while, however, 2023 had a new top movie.

Grade: B-minus. Rated R. Now playing at the Fine Arts Theatre

(Photo: IFC Films)