Movie reviews: 'Blackberry' vividly recreates the story of friendship, betrayal and hubris that began our obsession with phones
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This week, pop culture critic Richard Crouse reviews new movies: 'Blackberry,' 'Book Club: The Next Chapter' and 'The Mother'
It’s hard to remember now, but there was a time when we were not tethered to our smart phones. A new film, "BlackBerry," starring Jay Baruchel, Glenn Howerton, and Matt Johnson, and now playing in theatres, vividly recreates the scrappy story of friendship, betrayal and hubris that began our obsession with our phones.
Baruchel and Johnson play Mike Lazaridis and Doug Fregin, founders of small tech company Research in Motion (RIM). When we first meet them it's 1996 and they are about to pitch a new kind of pager to hotheaded executive Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton). He's the kind of Art of War-style boss who snaps at an assistant who reaches for a bottle of water.
"Thirst is a display of weakness."
Too busy trying to backstab his way to the top of the corporate ladder to give the tech nerds his attention, he dismisses the awkward pitch before they even get to the end. But when his latest grab at a promotion gets him fired from his cushy corporate job, he reaches out to RIM with an offer.
Under his aggressive leadership, coupled with Lazaridis' uncompromising search for perfection and Fregin's clever engineering and heart, the Waterloo, Ontario storefront start-up soon debuts "the world's largest pager." Or is it "the world's smallest email terminal?" Either way, it is a handheld game changer that combines a phone with the capabilities of a computer.
The odd little phone, with a QWERTY keyboard, encrypted messaging and low data cost, becomes a status symbol, used by some of the world's most powerful people. In the hands of everyone from President Barack Obama and Justin Timberlake to Katy Perry and Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, the phones helped the world communicate in a whole new way.
The halcyon days of BlackBerry lasted a few years until shady business dealings, ambition and lack of vision relegated RIM's products to the scrap heap; the "phone people had before they bought an iPhone."
An Arizona sheriff’s department got more than 4,000 calls within 24 hours after the release of videos of a masked person on Nancy Guthrie’s porch. Many tips will be worthless. Others could have merit. Experts say one thing’s certain: They can’t be ignored.
A five-concert “residency” by singer-songwriter and superstar Shakira in El Salvador’s capital builds on President Nayib Bukele’s yearslong effort to remake the Central American country’s international image from one of the world’s most violent countries into one of the safest.
Alexander Skarsgård doesn’t usually watch his movies more than once with an audience. But “Pillion,” in which he plays the enigmatic member of gay biker club who begins a dom-sub relationship with a younger, more inexperienced man, Colin (Harry Melling), has been an exception. He’s seen it at least four times.
Investigators in Arizona want residents near Nancy Guthrie ‘s home to share surveillance camera footage of suspicious cars or people they may have noticed in the month before she disappeared.
Investigators in Arizona are pleading with people to share home surveillance camera footage from specific dates leading up to the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie.
Barbara Hannigan has had what most people would consider a very busy year: dozens of performances across the globe, an album release and several prestigious awards.
Friends of actor James Van Der Beek shared reactions on social media to the death of the "Dawson's Creek" star.
Fresh surveillance images from Nancy Guthrie’s porch the night she went missing, coupled with intense police activity across Arizona and the detention of a man raised hopes that authorities were nearing a major break.
A person was detained for questioning Tuesday in the kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie, hours after the FBI released surveillance videos of a masked person wearing a handgun holster outside Guthrie’s front door the night she vanished from her Arizona home.
A person has been detained for questioning in the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Authorities investigating the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie more than a week ago released the first surveillance images Tuesday, showing a masked person on her porch the night she went missing.
U.S. singer-songwriter Chappell Roan announced on Monday that she had left her talent agency, after its CEO was named in files related to late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The Canadian-born comic actor died Jan. 30 at the age of 71. She was known for her roles in SCTV, Home Alone and Schitt's Creek.