BlackBerry

Even more than The Social Network, where Aaron Sorkin’s script treats Mark Zuckerberg and co like flawed deities, this blackly comic corporate drama finds something intrinsically ridiculous about these egotistical men.

Blackberry is a classic rags-to-riches-to-rags story; a feel-good tale that transforms into a meditation on arrogance and neglect.

All the pressures and compromises of corporate life are on show, magnified by the speed at which the tech industry moves.

A bleakly comic requiem for an almost forgotten one-time technological breakthrough, BlackBerry is heck of a ride.

The MVP: Glenn Howerton as BlackBerry’s unscrupulous co-CEO, Jim Balsillie, who never met an underling he didn’t want to snap in half.

Howerton plays Balsillie like an actual shark – perpetually on the hunt, dead-eyed and dispassionate.

BlackBerry is one of the BEST films of the year and a fully realized Canadian heritage moment.

After the product romance comes the product tragedy. While Barbie is boosting Mattel’s sales figures, and Air made everybody feel warm and fuzzy about Nike’s best-selling sports shoe, for the BlackBerry it’s all too late

Even when Blackberry centres on the cautionary tale of the company’s demise, it also tells a refreshing and entertaining part of geek and tech history.

BlackBerry is a timely and excellent reminder that, that as far as that piece of technology you’re reading this review on, there’s always something better just around the corner.