This fictionalisation of the incredible true-life meteoric rise and spectacular fall of the BlackBerry (the forerunner of today's smartphones) follows the fortunes of the tiny chaotic company that created it and its growth into a major tech player as it joins forces with a steely-eyed opportunistic executive. Filmed in an energetic, loose, lo-fi reality-TV style, with characters and dialogue delivered in a naturalistic manner, plus an irresistible indie-pop soundtrack of the period, the film captures the freewheeling abandon of the company's aggressive expansion and overreaching in the emerging market up to Apple's fatal blow with the iPhone. The shift in tone from the early comedic nerdy inexperience to the later high-stakes gloom and fearful desperation is handled very well indeed. It has a terrific ensemble cast, with standout performances from the great Michael Ironside and a hard-hitting COO and Jay Baruchel as the the brilliant mid-mannered tech creator behind it all. In this fictionalised version of events, BlackBerry is poignant in that there are real lives behind the story, but it is also quite an astonishing tale of ambition, greed and mistakes made that is well-made.
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