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A Night at the Movies
November 20, 2023 @ 7:00 pm
Matt Johnson’s masterfully crafted film is a workplace comedy for fans of the Social Network and The Big Short. Adapted from Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff’s book Losing the Signal, BlackBerry is a tale about the invention of the now-defunct smartphone that is as funny as it is riveting.
In the late ’90s, Research In Motion was just a humble tech outfit selling modems in Waterloo, Ontario. Best friends and co-founders Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel) — a soft-spoken tech whiz who’s the brains of the operation — and Douglas Fregin (Matt Johnson) — a headband-donning, nerve-grating goof — are trying to sell a product they call PocketLink, a never-before-seen combination of cellphone, email device, and pager. The telecom world isn’t impressed with Mike and Doug’s invention, but a domineering, foul-mouthed salesman named Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton) is. Jim sees the device’s potential and brokers a deal to acquire part of RIM in exchange for cash.
What follows is the gut-wrenching and side-splitting story of the meteoric rise and catastrophic fall of the world’s first handheld computer.
BlackBerry is a Canadian story told with tremendous national pride by Canadian talent. The three visionaries at the centre of this tale, despite their device’s ultimate descent into obsolescence, changed the way the world communicates today.
The movies take place at the Prince Rupert Cineplex at 7 p.m. with the doors opening at 6:30. You do not buy a ticket through the Cineplex system, rather you come to our PRCAC table outside whichever theatre our movie is scheduled to be shown in, with $12 in cash (we don’t have the means to accept debit or credit at this time), and if you can bring the correct change it would really help. Imagine if everyone comes with a twenty-dollar bill.
