In the early 2000s, the tech world experienced a boom. Mobile phone users swelled to unprecedented levels with the introduction of the BlackBerry, a “cellular device with email, text and internet”. With its iconic click-click QWERTY keyboard and exclusive messenger service BBM, it was once dubbed ‘crackberry’ by its obsessed users, over whom it had a biting addictive quality. Its invention led to the phone-addicted present. The idea that Bill Gates’ (stock footage of him appears briefly) Microsoft Word could be used on a phone to write this review was just a figment of a dream of a concept back in 1996. The BlackBerry pioneers were dubbed absurdists and laughed out of the room. Those who dared critique the viability of the BlackBerry were all idiots, according to creator Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel).
We know now Lazaridis was somewhat right, given the man once regarded as a boy genius finally landed in the big leagues. The BlackBerry is responsible for how we text and type on our devices, as Lazaridis instructs John Woodman (Saul Rubinek) to use his thumbs. At its Icarus-esque heights around 2010, it had over 40% market share, even three years after Apple had released their iPhone. In 2022, BlackBerry Limited went bust, shutting down BlackBerry Messenger and finding themselves swallowed up by the tech zeitgeist to become the very thing they were scared of becoming: old news.
This review was first posted on February 22nd 2023. Full review linked below.
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