The BlackBerry trailer promises a movie that’ll give your thumbs a workout
Glenn Howerton, Jay Baruchel, and their incredible headgear are the main event of BlackBerry’s Social Network
Film News BlackBerry
The latest tech true story, BlackBerry, has been buzzed about since it premiered at the Venice Film Festival last month. Most of that talk has surrounded Glenn Howerton, the square-jawed live-wire of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, and his turn as the brash BlackBerry CEO Jim Balsillie. But more than his performance, it looks like he shined his head in the shine-o ball-o, and a shiny head also makes for a good trailer.
Howerton brings that stern arrogance he’s made a signature of his TV work to the true story that looks more like The Dropout than Steve Jobs. There’s little reverence for Canadian company BlackBerry or its founders, who pushed their way to the top of the smartphone sector by bringing QWERTY to mobile communications. BlackBerry trailer advertises the sheer bullishness and foolishness of its subjects who forced the world to type with their thumbs.
Opposite Howerton is Jay Baruchel as BlackBerry founder Mike Lazaridis. Armed with a stark white wig, confirmed by the real Mike Lazaridis’ Wikipedia photo, Baruchel has the dorky insecurity that balances him out. The movie pitches a two-hander between two weird Canadians, and that’s what we’re getting.
BlackBerry was directed by Matt Johnson, who also stars as BlackBerry co-founder Doug Fregin. Johnson is probably best known for the Viceland TV show Nirvanna The Band The Show, a mockumentary about two musicians pulling publicity stunts to get a gig at a famed Toronto nightclub. Johnson’s latest is another quest for immortality, except it’s about the sheer capitalistic force to exploit the then wild west of internet telecommunications.
BlackBerry opens in theaters on May 12.
12 Comments
very excited for this one. johnson is an extremely talented director and howerton looks like he really showed the fuck up.
They should do Nortel next if we’re going all Canadian telecoms. Nortel, or, as my dad referred to them as “The loosest, most corrupt bunch of cunts I ever had to work with.”
This looks like it should easily be the best showcase yet for Glenn Howerton outside of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I’ve been waiting for him to get something like this, very much looking forward to this movie.
I like a blackberry every now and then.
“Two thumbs up!”
This should be really cool.Did anyone else have a Blackberry?I had one for a few years in the mid-late 2000s which I got for work only to find that my work’s email system didn’t support the fucking things, so it was useless from that point of view and its other features (including camera) were absolute dogshit.I dropped it as soon as my contract was up and went with an iPhone.
buddy i was all-in. i even had the touchscreen one. BBM was the lynchpin of my social world in my 20s.
i even had the touchscreen one.The Storm? I still have a t-shirt from their launch party (I worked at a store for a wireless carrier and we always looked forward to the free food at phone launch parties). I remember it being heavy as shit and I didn’t like that the whole screen moved when you did a hard press. The shirt held up well, though.
Oh nice! Mine was before the touchscreens. It was the 2007 or 2008 era model with the ball.
My wife and I got Blackberry Pearl phones in early 2008; by the time they were long in the tooth a couple years later, we switched to Android phones and never looked back. The Pearls were fine, and I liked how incredibly small they were.
Nirvanna the band the show is criminally unknown. For fans of Nathan Fielder and Eric Andre it’s essential viewing.
I actually had one of the Willie Wonka brand smartphones, the Snozzberry.