BlackBerry

Open Caption screenings Sunday, June 4 at 11:45am and Wednesday, June 7 at 5pm. These screenings will be presented with on screen subtitling and sound descriptions.

The “true story” of the meteoric rise and catastrophic demise of the world’s first smartphone, BlackBerry is a bitingly funny, whirlwind ride through a ruthlessly competitive Silicone Valley at breakneck speeds. Writer/director Matt Johnson’s wild, stranger-than-fiction yarn introduces viewers to Research in Motion, a scrappy band of brilliant but directionless techies regularly getting screwed on their contracts. Enter Jim Balsillie (Glen Howerton, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia), a ruthless corporate shark who recognized the potential in Research in Motion CEO Mike Lazaridis’ (Jay Baruchel, This is the End) vision for an all-in-one mobile device, and sold the entire planet on it. Their odd couple pairing of engineering perfectionism and take-no-prisoners capitalism changed the nature of communication … but there’s a reason we’re not all still tapping away on our so-called “CrackBerrys,” and this absurdly thrilling and thrillingly absurd satire of corporate greed and nerd culture reveals how this oddball chapter in techie history went spectacularly sideways. Also starring Cary Elwes, Saul Rubinek, Michael Ironside, Michelle Giroux and Martin Donovan. (Dir. by Matt Johnson, 2023, Canada, 119 min., Not Rated R)