Canada represent! Filmmaker Matt Johnson is no stranger to SxSW and Austin’s Fantastic Fest where I have met him many times (and he also has one of the best acting-is-reacting faces in recent memory) with THE DIRTIES at Fantastic Fest along with OPERATION AVALANCHE at SxSW a few years ago. I was honored to be at the US Premiere of BLACKBERRY at the Zach Theatre the other day. BLACKBERRY is the Canadian story of the meteoric rise and catastrophic demise of the world’s first smartphone.
JASON’S REACTION: Of course I never thought about the actual history of the BlackBerry smartphone, one of the very first to break out on the market. I also didn’t know that it was a Canadian invention that got its start in a computer geek’s paradise all the way in Waterloo, Ontario outside of the big Toronto city. I owned one for several years around the time that all the madness was going down over the phone and it was definitely an addiction, in which a character refers to the device as a “Crackberry”. I concur. This story just gets more and more strange as things progress with quite possibly THE performance of the festival from Glenn Howerton as the loud, angry but oddly lovable Jim Balsillie who crashes into the lives of creators Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel, terrific here) and Doug (Matt Johnson, again with the best acting-is-reacting face) and stops at nothing to take the Blackberry by storm in such a bizarre way where your jaw will be on the floor with his actions.
Filmmaker Matt Johnson, no stranger to Austin with THE DIRTIES at Fantastic Fest and then OPERATION movie many years later at SxSW, has picked the perfect venue to kick this movie off. Shot on almost a documentary like level with a nod to THE OFFICE, BLACKBERRY shows a complicated history with a real sharp comedic edge in Johnson’s finest work as a filmmaker to date. There is one line in this movie about owning its then-new competitor, the iPhone, that had me in stitches and is absolutely accurate about the era (I am typing this right now on my iPad. Trust me, I get it). This Canadian gem I am hoping gets a wide release as it had a terrific response here in Austin and I can’t wait to spread the word even more.
This film and many others like it will be showing at South By Southwest taking place March 10-19. For more information point your browser to www.sxsw.com!