BlackBerry tells the story of Canadian tech founders Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, an opposites entice duo who turned a tech innovation (the world’s first smartphone) right into a billion-dollar phenomenon—after which watched it flame out in equally spectacular trend. The film premiered on the Berlin Movie Pageant final month, and it’s already being hailed as Canada’s reply to The Social Community, a comparability director Matt Johnson takes as a praise (although he believes the Canadian film business must cease attempting to mimic our southern neighbours). BlackBerry is Johnson’s third function movie—a major departure from earlier indie fare, but in addition a deeply private undertaking. Right here he talks about why Canadian filmmakers ought to channel their interior Balsillie and life classes from one in every of his cinematic north stars: Dolly Parton.
As a director, you’re recognized for experimental indie work, however BlackBerry is extra of a traditional biopic. Why was this iconic Canadian tech story the proper undertaking for you?
I believe exactly due to what you’re saying. On its face, the BlackBerry story appears somewhat dry. Folks go, “Why would I ever watch a film a couple of useless cellphone that I by no means cared about when it existed?” That skepticism grew to become a bridge towards my extra inaccessible fashion of filmmaking. I’ve all the time struggled attempting to make movies for a bigger viewers as a result of my work is so private. This movie can also be ridiculously private, however that a part of it’s mixed with this broader, real-world story.
You say your fashion is inaccessible, however BlackBerry doesn’t really feel that means.
My earlier movies are these barely arcane, hardcore pretend documentaries the place the viewers has to purchase into the format to take pleasure in it. The intention with BlackBerry is to make it seem to be you’re within the room with these guys, which is difficult to approximate with extra conventional camerawork. In some methods, it’s the anti-Spielberg or anti-Fincher or anti-Kubrick strategy, the place it looks as if it’s taking place by probability and the footage has been found. I like making movies that nearly disguise themselves as being actually low price range, actually low effort.
I’m reminded of that Dolly Parton quote: “It takes some huge cash to look this low-cost.”
That quote has been a central philosophy for me since I used to be 16 years outdated. Dolly is a genius, and you’ll see her affect in artists who have been impressed by her, going so far as Kurt Cobain, Andy Warhol, the place the brilliance simply looks as if a fluke however you then scratch the floor a bit, and also you understand, “Oh my God…”
You have been in your 20s when BlackBerry was in its heyday. Did you personal one?
Earlier than we began taking pictures, I had by no means even touched a BlackBerry. I did have a superb pal who all the time used to make jokes about BlackBerry’s messaging service that I by no means actually understood. To not say I used to be a complete luddite, however that whole technology of tech completely missed me.
So what do you imply if you say the story could be very private?
After I was first studying concerning the story of BlackBerry, what struck me was how a lot their journey was like my expertise making my first movie. I additionally had some success after which watched all of my private relationships change in a single day. I wrote the script with my producing associate, Matt Miller. We used a ebook known as Dropping the Sign: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry, written by two Canadian journalists, as our spine, however that ebook was licensed by Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, so it solely hinted on the tenser elements of the connection.
To fill within the particulars, we spoke to among the younger engineers who labored for the corporate within the early days—one man had saved journals and images from that point, which was superb. Then Matt and I transposed a lot of our personal experiences on prime of the BlackBerry story. Finally, we wished to make a film that was about work, what it means to go to work, the which means you get from it, the justification for working all evening on initiatives which will or might not ship something, that lust for energy, the necessity to create issues solely to enlarge your standing. These are all of the darkish sides of my very own persona dancing collectively on display screen. If you see Mike, Jim and co-founder Doug Fregin, you’re primarily watching me and my life cut up into three individuals.
I can see you in Mike, the exacting artistic genius, and Doug, the loyal, lovable manchild. However what about Jim Balsillie?
I’ll put it this manner: when you have been to ask any of my closest pals which of the three was essentially the most like me, they’d all say Jim. For my part, Jim Balsillie is portrayed on this film as being very sort. At no level is he sadistic. Deep down, all he needs is to be the perfect. After all, he’s completely misguided. With out a Mike or a Doug, the Jim persona sort is heartless. I bear in mind one actor described Jim as a personality who consumes with out tasting, which I believed was actually good. He needs to win just for the sake of profitable, so after I say I’m like him, that’s solely a chunk of me. The Mike in me and the Doug in me additionally wish to win for various causes.
Within the film, Jim has one mode of communication: yelling. I can’t think about that’s you on set.
No, no. I’ve by no means yelled at anybody in my life. It’s extra Jim’s angle: if it’s going to profit their firm, something is justified. That’s definitely how I really feel as a filmmaker, which isn’t very Canadian. One in all Jim’s central persona traits is that he nearly has an Americanness to him.
What means are justified by this film?
I provides you with an instance from my final film, Operation Avalanche, which was presupposed to be set in NASA within the Nineteen Sixties. We couldn’t recreate it as a result of we didn’t have the funds for, so we posed as movie college students making a documentary. We flew to NASA in Texas, shot our complete film illegally after which launched it. We did about 100 variations of that on BlackBerry. If you’re watching the characters drive into the places of work and park within the car parking zone, that’s actually the place all of it occurred.
You forged Jay Baruchel, who most audiences know as a lovable stoner, as Mike Lazaridis. Was that an apparent name?
Jay was an early associate on the movie. I knew him as a result of my editor, Curt Lobb, additionally edited his function, Random Acts of Violence, so we met as pals. In a short time, I noticed that the true Jay was fairly totally different from the one I had seen in motion pictures. He’s a perfectionist in one of the best ways. He has actually excessive requirements, and he appeared to know the at-all-costs, this-must-be-right angle that Mike Lazaridis had.
MORE: Q&A: BlackBerry’s Jay Baruchel loves motion pictures, hockey, weed and his now-obsolete cellphone
BlackBerry premiered to superb opinions on the Berlin Movie Pageant in February. Persons are already calling it Canada’s model of The Social Community. Is {that a} praise?
Completely, I see that as an enormous praise. The Social Community was revolutionary. It got here out in 2010, and individuals are nonetheless speaking about it. The comparisons have been inevitable, and we leaned into that with the script. I attempted to steal as a lot of that Sorkin fashion as we may.
You wore a Jays T-shirt to the BlackBerry press occasion in Berlin. Was that on objective or did they lose your baggage?
No, no, that’s one in every of my favorite shirts. I’m very proud to be Canadian—I’d say stupidly so. After I was rising up, my dad mentioned, “That is the best nation on the earth. You’re fortunate to be right here.” I nonetheless imagine that. I’ll say that Canada is a joke as a filmmaking nation. When individuals discover out BlackBerry is Canadian, they’re shocked, in the identical means that they’re shocked that BlackBerry is a Canadian product. There’s a superb purpose for that. A part of it’s that we’re extraordinarily modest—we’re not like Jim Balsillie.
Greatest recommendation for aspiring Canadian filmmakers?
I’d encourage individuals to seek out their very own fashion—particularly a visible fashion—fairly than attempting to repeat the People. When that occurs, we find yourself with this form of ersatz, uncanny valley model of American-style filmmaking, which wants budgets 4, 5, six instances of what we’re coping with. There’s a saying amongst filmmakers that one thing appears “Canadian” when there’s simply one thing barely improper, like taking a look at a clone of your mom.
Given the early buzz, what are your hopes for the subsequent few months?
I actually do not know. For me, it nonetheless looks like a really small film about me and my pals, however I suppose the Jim Balsillie in me is hoping it performs in all places.
That Jim Balsillie is already strolling the pink carpet on the Oscars in 2024!
Proper, after which the Canadian in me is saying, “Effectively, don’t get your hopes up.”