Matt Johnson’s BlackBerry is one of the best movies I’ve seen this year. A fact-based account of the Waterloo, Ontario tech giant’s rise and fall in the late nineties/ early 2000s, the film can easily go head-to-head with similar, bigger-budget fare like The Social Network, The Big Short and Steve Jobs, thanks to the intriguing storyline, Johnson’s direction, and, of course, the performances. Here at JoBlo, we were lucky enough to speak to star Jay Baruchel about the film recently, and I guess the interview went pretty well, as we were invited to chat with him again – this time paired with It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Glenn Howerton, who co-stars.
Baruchel plays BlackBerry founder Mike Lazaridis, while Howerton plays the company’s co-CEO, Jim Basile. If you know anything about what went awry with the company, it would have been easy to paint Lazaridis as the hero and Basile as the villain. Still, Johnson’s movie isn’t interested in being that simple or predictable. Instead, it’s a layered account of greed and ambition and how tech changes so quickly that even the most prominent company can go from being an industry leader to a pariah overnight.
Both Baruchel and Howerton seem justifiably proud of their work on the film, with them both singing the praises of director Johnson (The Dirties). It’s interesting because both Baruchel and Howerton have plenty of experience as filmmakers in their own right, as producers, writers and directors, so it was interesting to hear how they knew pretty early in the filming that the movie would turn out great – which it did.
Check out my BlackBerry review here, and make sure to catch the film in theaters! It’s open now!