For a few years, the city of Waterloo, Ontario, came close to dethroning Silicon Valley, California, as the world’s high-tech center. It was there that Mike Lazaridis, co-founder with his friend Douglas Fregin of Research in Motion, invented the BlackBerry, a cell phone capable of sending and receiving emails: a revolution.
Its supremacy lasted from 1999 to around 2010, when the iPhone launched by Apple in 2007 dethroned the Canadian device for good. Both amused satire and sharp criticism, the film BlackBerry (VF) looks back on the rise and fall of Lazaridis, played by Jay Baruchel.
“Reading MJ’s script [Matt Johnson] and Matthew Miller, I was surprised how little I knew about this story. It was all the more surprising since I’m normally interested in this kind of stuff; I follow Canadian news avidly,” explains the Ottawa-born actor who, despite an enviable Hollywood career, remains fiercely attached to his country of origin.
“I knew the BlackBerry had a near monopoly and then the iPhone killed it, and that’s about it. Everything else, like the Securities and Exchange Commission investigation, I found out by reading, and it was exciting. There was everything: drama, conflict… And it was incredibly funny. »
In fact, the film may have been the subject of painstaking research (Jay Baruchel describes Johnson and Miller as “living Wikipedias”), the tone is decidedly humorous. What verve! The mockumentary-like production testifies to the same bias. This is a specialty of Matt Johnson (The Dirties And Operation Avalanche), who directed the film in addition to playing Douglas Fregin, one of the three leading roles.
What is the third? Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton), the predatory co-CEO of Research in Motion (which became BlackBerry Limited). The resulting mismatched trio resembles an association between the two teenagers nerd of Weird Science (dream creature), of John Hughes, brilliant inventors multiplying childish actions, and the yuppie psychopathAmerican Psycho, by Mary Harron. Given the comedic approach, the contrast pays off a hundredfold.
Reading MJ’s script [Matt Johnson] and Matthew Miller, I was surprised how little I knew about this story. It was all the more surprising since I’m normally interested in this kind of stuff; i follow canadian news avidly.
In BlackBerry, Lazaridis and especially Fregin are thus presented as two man-children surrounded by other man-children (the female rarity is duly noted). In one scene, the character played by Michael Ironside, in charge of monitoring productivity, remarks not without acuity that he is not in the presence of men, but of “little boys busy playing with their small penises”.
As in The Social Network (The social network), by David Fincher, on the founder of Facebook, the immaturity of high-tech geniuses is one of the main themes of BlackBerry.
quest for authenticity
How faithful is the film to real events? As much as possible.
“With MJ and Matthew, we quickly agreed on the fact that we were not journalists and that we were not making a documentary. We tell this true story through fictional cinema, an art that willingly ventures into allegorical, poetic territory… We felt we were bound by truth and authenticity, but not necessarily precision. In film, there is an important distinction between authenticity and accuracy. »
Jay Baruchel insists on the nuance, fundamental in his eyes: “A film can be technically very precise, but not convey the desired meaning to the public, or not make them feel the desired emotion. »
With this in mind, Matt Johnson insisted with the interpreters that none of them meet the real people portrayed in the film before the end of the shooting.
“He feared, rightly, that one of us would feel sympathy and that unconsciously, the fear of hurting or displeasing would hinder the creative freedom essential to the film. We didn’t want to do propaganda. Moreover, the book on which the screenplay is partly based has been approved by the three men concerned. »
Not the movie.
Without kickstand
With prematurely gray and then white hair, Jay Baruchel is unrecognizable as the shy but stubborn Mike Lazaridis. Dominated by his friend Douglas, then by their associate Jim, Mike takes time to assert himself.
“The way I play Mike is very much based on my insecurity during filming, the fact that I was deprived of my acting crutches for the first time. I am 41 years old and I have been on film sets since I was 12 years, and over time, as an actor, it happens that we develop tics: the crutches in question. I talk a lot with my hands, I use my eyebrows too much… Very early on, Matt told me: “Your willingness to resist your usual instincts, it will generate an ideal tension for the role.” So this “discomfort” that characterizes Mike is due to my own concern, simultaneously, not to do what I do all the time. »
Jay Baruchel describes Mike as “a pure soul”, at least in the beginning. “He’s a tech genius, but deep down his vision is that of an artist. And he possesses this naivety while being completely invested in his mission: nothing important can happen in the world without people like that. The ambition is there too… But in short, selfishly, for an actor, the prospect of playing such a role is exhilarating. »
on the dark side
We mentioned from the outset Weird Science And American Psycho : you must know that BlackBerry is lined with cinematographic allusions and winks. However, there is a film which is not mentioned explicitly, but which had a significant importance for Jay Baruchel when he had to approach this moment when his character somehow goes to the dark side. No, it’s not about Star Wars.
“I was inspired by scarface [Le Balafré]. In Brian De Palma’s film, there’s this scene where Tony Montana [Al Pacino] is in the jacuzzi. Elvira [Michelle Pfeiffer] is gone and he is alone now, and high on its own merchandise. I talked about it with Matt, explaining to him that this scene corresponded to the one, in our film, where my character rejects Douglas and agrees to have their device manufactured in China, which goes against his initial convictions. He lives this episode of demiurgic blindness and believes his own lies, like Tony. »
In terms of the diversity of emotions, Jay Baruchel considers this to be his most complex role to date. It’s the case. Did the real Mike Lazaridis see the actor’s portrayal of him?
“I was told that he knows the film exists, but he doesn’t care. He’s on Planet Mike. »
This sums up the character perfectly… and which perhaps explains in large part the inevitable decline of his invention.
The feature film BlackBerry hits theaters May 12.