The phone was nicknamed "Crackberry" - due to its addictive quality ... (an omen of the future of smartphones). Here, people loved the clicking of the mini keyboard and the blinking "new messages" light. It was the rage of Wall Street, Fortune 500 companies government leaders and had dedicated fans ranging from Obama to Katy Perry to Kim Kardashian.
It was with this fascination that I watched "Blackberry". I wanted to know how did all of this get started and by whom? Well, the movie didn't disappoint - I'd have never guessed the people behind it and wild ride they had.
The story is brisk and the characters have radically different personalities. The latter made it interesting given that they all thrown together in an increasingly high-pressure environment. My favorite character was the comic-sidekick Doug Fregin (cofounder) - he reminds me of Jonah Hill. It also turns out that he's the co-writer and director of the film itself.
One thing I didn't immediately recognize was that the tech wiz / boy-wonder (Mike Lazaridis) was played by Jay Baruchel. He was the voice behind the lead character in How to Train Your Dragon. It was perfect casting.
Blackberry is definitely worth a watch if the subject matter interests you. It's yet another movie demonstrating that real-life events can be just as captivating as pure fiction itself. It joins the ranks of other great tech stories inspired by true events: The Dropout (Theranos / Elizabeth Holmes), We Crashed (WeWork), Super Pumped (Uber), and Tetris (the game).
