BlackBerry (2023)

Matt Johnson's rather John McEnroe-esque "Doug" rather stole this tale of what was literally a tech-tonic shift in how we used our mobile phones. He, together with his boss Mike (Jay Baruchel), has been working with a small team of geeks to develop a mobile word processor that can send messages by text and email. It's funding they lack and it's during a fairly flawed presentation that they encounter "Jim" (Glenn Howerton), a savvy operator who knows just enough about the business to get them that elusive big deal. Thing is, they don't think they have the processing capacity to service this ever increasing share of the market even if their new pal is generating eye-watering business opportunities. A 46% market share of what became the exponentially burgeoning smartphone market offered them real potential to dominate for years - but history tells us just what did happen. This film benefits from not really having a big star at the helm. The three men juggle the pressures, successes and failures delivering a solid and at times quite funny story of the rise and falls of a company that, when faced with difficulties, resorted to an emergency movie night! It doesn't shy away from depicting some of the sharper practices at play in this supremely competitive business, but it delivers in a far less aggressive fashion. Maybe it's a Canadian thing, but I found myself actually wanting them to succeed (even if I actually ended up loathing my own "Crackberry"). So many of these true stories are based on characters seeking easy money - this is based on a pair of guys who actually made something; and something that set a benchmark for kit we all use across the world without a second thought nowadays. Enjoyable to watch and worth two hours of your time.