Blackberry

Blackberry is the true story of the meteoric rise and the catastrophic demise of the world's first smartphone. It’s the story of the company that nearly changed the world, before they were ground to dust beneath the heel of Silicon Valley, and blown away by the winds of undeniable change.

Just to be clear here, BlackBerry is definitely the newest member of the “Greed is Good” oeuvre, standing shoulder to shoulder with such White Guy Greed classics as Glengarry Glen Ross, The Wolf of Wall Street, Boiler Room, and of course, the big papa itself, Wall Street.

Like those other films, Blackberry is another story about greedy and charismatic sociopaths of singular vision in America. It’s a story about the irredeemably corrupt capitalistic system these selfish monsters exploit in order to bend the world to their will. The story follows these men of privilege and opportunity as they gather power, horde wealth, revel in their undeserved accolades, and steal, or stomp on, everything in their path, and all for one purpose only: To enrich themselves. This is the story of men bred to think only of themselves, and the system they built that rewards them for that, for their eager and willing scramble up a pile of money and corpses, all for the shining promise of that golden ring hanging above.

And like those other films, the sweet, sweet pay-off finally comes when these men strain too hard, lean too far out, and blinded by their avarice, over-reach, losing their footing, slipping in the blood, the bile, and the slippery slopes, tumbling from those great heights, to be devoured by their brother monsters waiting below.

It’s great.

Except for the inevitable part at the very end, of course, the part where it’s revealed that none the major players here were ever truly punished, they just… floated away on their cushion of money and the advantage of their birth.

Ultimately, this is the most important lesson from the film. That, despite their massive crimes, and the many lives they may have ruined in the process, both directly and indirectly, these kinds of men are never truly punished, especially not when they were just doing exactly what the system was built for them to do, because that’s not how America works when you’re white and wealthy and cis-gendered male.

This epilogue doesn’t make the film worse, but still…

It’s sobering.

All that having been said, and despite that last bit of ugly and undeniable reality, I loved this film. It was great fun, the cast is fantastic. It’s definitely worth checking out. Plus, in a nice little addition to the “Greed is Good” formula, Blackberry is also the story of a gaggle of losers, too blinded by their initial successes to see they are doomed to be nothing more than forgotten footnotes, and instead of changing with the ever-changing world, they rail futilely against it, refusing to bend, and instead, they are broken, and left behind.

So, it’s got that going for it too, which is nice.