The Best Product Biopic Stuns On Hulu
If you’ve been keeping up with Hollywood industry trends, you may have noticed an alarming rise in the so-called “product biopic” lately, which sees a film centering its narrative on the rise and fall of a single corporate item. Some lackluster examples of this trend include Jerry Seinfeld’s Unfrosted and the Hulu original film Flamin’ Hot, which each tell the slightly fictionalized tale of how certain food items were crafted and marketed. Despite the seemingly soulless nature of this trend, one surprise hit from 2023, Blackberry, is an ultra-compelling movie that actually provides a great deal of insight into an important moment in the history of modern technology.
Remember The Blackberry? Pepperidge Farm Remembers.
The Blackberry movie was written and directed by Matt Johnson, who previously created the hit Canadian television series Nirvana the Band the Show, along with a number of viral shorts. The film stars This Is The End‘s Jay Baruchel, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia‘s Glenn Howerton, and Matt Johnson himself, as the trio of brilliant minds responsible for creating the Blackberry cellular phone and bringing it to market during the early 2000s.
For those of you too young to recall, the Blackberry was the dominant cell phone for several years until it was dethroned by the iPhone, and the shocking true story of the device’s meteoric rise and catastrophic fall will have you on the edge of your seat.
Nothing Ever Goes Wrong In The World Of Venture Capital
The narrative of the BlackBerry movie begins in Waterloo, Canada, as tech engineer Mike Lazaridis and his associate Doug Fregin meet with a venture capitalist firm to discuss marketing their newly-crafted smart device, the PocketLink. After they are shunned by underhanded business shark Jim Balsillie at their meeting, the duo are dismayed to learn that they have been taken advantage of by USRobotics, who defrauded Lazaridis’ small operation out of a $16 million deal.
Fearing that they cannot hack it in the business world, the engineers reach out to Balsillie with a proposition, to bring him in as a one-third investor of their business, allowing him to bring his cutthroat practices to their previously laid-back environment.
Pitching The Product
Almost immediately, Jim Balsillie pushes to bring new technology to market, demanding Lazaridis and Fregin develop a functional prototype of their PocketLink to pitch to American telecommunications giant Bell Atlantic. After a successful pitch, a quick name change for the device, and a brief time-jump, the film confirms that the Blackberry quickly took over 45 percent of the cell phone market across the entire planet. Obviously, I won’t spoil the entire plot of the BlackBerry movie, but you’ll surely want to tune in to see how the entire industry came crashing down.
Glen Howerton Pulls Off More Than Just The Hairdo
When I first saw trailers for BlackBerry, I had little to no interest in the movie outside of Glenn Howerton’s performance. From the very first moments of the BlackBerry trailer, you can see that Howerton, who is best known for portraying Dennis Reynolds in It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, is really giving it his all, with a visceral performance rife with dramatic emotional outbursts. By the time I left the theater, however, BlackBerry had firmly solidified itself in my eyes as the best film of 2023, with absolutely no competition.
Streaming Blackberry On Hulu
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Those interested in catching the explosive BlackBerry movie can stream the film on Hulu today. Just be sure to silence your cell phone before settling in for a viewing, or your most unhinged friend might pop a blood vessel in abject fury.
