The audacious story of the meteoric rise and calamitous fall of BlackBerry, the very first smartphone. 

Opening in 1996 BlackBerry introduces us to Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel) and Doug Fregin (Matt Johnson – who co-writes and directs) as they attempt to pitch their new cellular device to businessman Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton). The pitch goes catastrophically badly, but when Balsillie is later fired from his company for his cut throat business tactics he offers to invest his own money for the position of CEO. After some amusing negotiations from Mike and Doug which shows off their social awkwardness they settle on terms and begin the rollercoaster ride that was Research In Motion (RIM) – the company that developed the first smartphone. 

The film takes us through the major events of BlackBerry showing off Laziridis’s technical brilliance, Fregin’s focus on caring for his staff and Balsillie’s outrageous and sometimes illegal tactics in business. 

The result is an astoundingly good film that fizzes with excitement about what could have been. It sits alongside films like The Social Network (Facebook), Steve Jobs (Apple) and Air (Nike) as fantastic stories about groundbreaking moments in entrepreneurship from inventors whose genius and flaws can create huge amounts of revenue whilst also producing large amounts of emotional turmoil in their wake. Here the most fascinating thing for me is how much the protagonists found themselves losing sight of what they originally stood for. 

It is also almost certainly the best performances I have seen from the likes of Baruchel and Howerton who are more commonly associated with comedy. 

BlackBerry is an overlooked gem.