'BLACKBERRY' IS A LOOK BACK AT PHONE WAR'S ALSO-RAN'

Gather around, young ones. Silence your iPhones and Samsungs. We're here to learn about the Before Times, when the hottest tech device was nicknamed "CrackBerry."

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The gripping and hugely enjoyable "BlackBerry" is about the famous and later infamous - Research in Motion gadget that helped trigger the global smartphone era as we know it, before sliding into obsolescence.

The BlackBerry may seem quaint now in the days of sleek water resistant 5G phones with face ID, but it was the first mobile device with a pager, cellphone and email capability all in one thing. No idea? Ask your parents.

"BlackBerry" tells the standard rise and fall of a tech startup that blows up, naturally leading to insider infighting - think "Silicon Valley" and "The Social Network" — but there's a twist here: The main money guy, while very shouty, is not the sleazy, bad guy you might expect.

Director and co-writer Matt Johnson recounts a breathless decade or so starting in 1996, when Research in Motion was just an office filled with tech geeks in Canada.

Johnson also stars as Doug Fregin, a headband-wearing, movie-quoting ubergeek, an amalgam of a few Research in Motion people.