Matt Johnson – We Are Movie Geeks

BLACKBERRY – Review

Hmmm, I wonder if this new release completes a “movie hat trick”? Now, that’s because it’s the third film this year to center around the creation of a popular product from the not-too-distant past (really the trio spans roughly a dozen years, from 1984 to 1996). First out of the gate was the surprisingly effective TETRIS, the tale of the popular computer/video game, from AppleTV+. It was soon topped by Amazon’s AIR, the all-star story of Nike’s pursuit of rookie NBA phenom Michael Jordan and the best-selling shoe baring his name. Jump ahead to now (and 12 years in the movie timeline) and IFC brings us a “docu-dramedy” all about a communications device that became the hot “it” gizmo, but is now almost a blip in the “hand-held” history. And rather than being referred to by a litany of letters and numbers, this combo of soft and hardware went by the fruit-based moniker of BLACKBERRY.

Its “origin” story design begins with its creator, but rather on an ambitious “company-man” named Jim Balsille (Glen Howerton) at a major Canadian tech firm. On this particular morning in 1996, he’s pumped up for a big confab with some foreign investors. Oh, but first he’s forced to deal with a couple of “gizmo geeks” from Research In Motion out of Waterloo, Ontario. Doug Fregin (Matt Johnson), in full “frat-bro” regalia fumbles with some display posters, while the “brains”, inventor Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel) explains his hand-held, phone-like “pager-hybrid” that allows folks to check and answer emails and text messages. Naturally, Jim thinks the idea will never work, and hustles the two out before the “money men” walk in. And then Jim ignores a direct edict from the “big boss” and is promptly canned. He fumes back at his tiny home while watching hockey on TV before Jim thinks back to those ill-prepared nerds. The next day he drives to RIM, which seems more like a raucous college dorm, and offers to sell their device and erase their bank loan debt (it seems a big router sale went south) if he is made co-owner with 50% of the company. Doug balks, but Mike is interested in this abrasive “lifeline”. Soon they’re sweating through the weekend on a non-working prototype with calculator parts in order to meet with a major company in NYC on Monday morning. Its CEO John Wodman (Saul Rubinek) scoffs, saying this “BlackBerry thingee’ ” would eat up cellular minutes, but Mike has an idea to use free wifi and to make the messages use data rather than minutes. And once Mike works his magic, the “BB’ is a sensation. But success comes at a price as Doug is eased out, Mike becomes a “suit”, and Jim raids the other big software giants, luring execs with shady profit-sharing deals. Everything seems great until they all see the online rollout of something called an iPhone. Jim and Mike believe it to be just a bump in the road, but could it possibly derail the whole BlackBerry future?

Providing the needed energy to propel fairly familiar themes is the bravado performance from Howerton, perhaps best known as part of the ensemble of the cult TV cable comedy “It’s Always Sunny in Philidelphia”, as the power-hungry Jim. He’s almost the “love child” of ENTOURAGE super-agent Ari Gold and Gordon Gecko of WALL STREET. Jim’s a bald ball of fury, looking to acquire as much as possible while seething with revenge for anyone who slights him. But he’s the “human steamroller” needed by the timid folks at RIM, and he becomes the “tough love” mentor of Baruchel’s Mike, who yearns to keep his creation pure and close to his heart. Ah, but there’s the devilish imp of Jim on his shoulder and soon he’s emulating his fashion sense before agreeing to overseas production, Still, Baruchel’s furrowed brow and downcast eyes convey his “turn to the dark side”, Part of that is Mike’s rebuke of the best pal (and “shoulder angel”), Doug who Johnson portrays as a twister of exasperated comedic chaos in a headband and unwashed T-shirts and tank tops. Sure, he’s a bit dim though his affable nature gives him the ability to “see through” the conniving Jim. There are also some choice supporting roles for a bevy of screen vets. Michael Ironside (forever the king of the SCANNERS) is the glowering hulk brought in by Jim to “crack the whip” on the fun-loving staff, while Cary Elwes shines as the arrogant smug rival to Jim. And the aforementioned Rubinel has the proper surly gravitas as the kingpin-like “gatekeeper to riches”.

Hey, I forgot to mention that the actor playing Doug, Matt Johnson, is also the film’s director and the co-screenwriter (he and Matthew Miller adapted the book, “Losing the Signal” by Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff). Talk about doing a terrific job as a “multi-tasker”! He brings the comedy with his recreation of that 90s tech mania and the free-wheeling playful vibe of RIM (they take turns with a toilet plunger for the monitors), complete with the annoying beeps and buzzes of joining the internet. Yet, Johnson’s not merely a polished pop-culture satirist as he takes us down a dark pathway of greed and deception. This provides a very suspenseful final act as the main characters face the consequences while the feds encircle them, not to mention their annoyed partners. Hubris fuels a clever modern take on the “rags-to-riches-to-rags” cautionary saga making for a punchy, brisk two hours, You may not have ever owned one, but you should enjoy the tart and tasty BLACKBERRY.

3 Out of 4

BLACKBERRY is now playing in select theatres

OPERATION AVALANCHE – Arriving on DVD, Digital HD, and On Demand January 3

Buckle up for a Cold War conspiracy when Operation Avalanche launches on DVD, Digital HD and On Demand January 3 from Lionsgate. Filmmaker and actor Matt Johnson stars alongside Owen Williams and Josh Boles as undercover CIA agents on a mission at NASA in what Variety is calling “a wild rewrite of space-age history.” A film festival favorite,Operation Avalanche was an official selection at the SXSW Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Hot Docs, and Mammoth Film Festival. The Operation Avalanche DVD will be available for the suggested retail price of $19.98.

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS
In 1967 two CIA agents go undercover at NASA to investigate a possible Russian mole. In disguise as documentary filmmakers, they tap phones and break into offices while purporting to learn more about the Apollo project. But when they end up uncovering a shocking NASA secret — and a major government cover-up — they decide to embark on a new mission that may put their own lives at risk.

DVD SPECIAL FEATURES

Audio Commentaries
- Director’s Commentary with Matt Johnson
- “The Look of Operation Avalanche” Commentary with Directors of Photography Andy Appelle and Jared Raab, Colorist Conor Fisher and 16mm Film Artist Pablo Perez
- “Writing Through Editing – The Post Production of Operation Avalanche” Commentary with Producer Matthew Miller, Editor Curt Lobb and VFX Supervisor Tristan Zerafa
Deleted Scenes
- “A Huge Mission”
- “Setting Up”
- “Webb Tap”
- “Shut It Down”
Behind the Scenes Featurettes
- “Behind the Scenes: Operation Avalanche”
- “Behind the Scenes: Car Chase”
- “Behind the Scenes: Pool Party”
- “The Creators Project – Reanimating Kubrick”
- “Vice Presents – The Making of Operation Avalanche”

CAST
Matt Johnson The Dirties, How Heavy This Hammer
Owen Williams The Dirties
Josh Boles The Dirties

OPERATION AVALANCHE – Review

What if the moon landing was faked? What if it was an elaborate hoax constructed to maintain a sense of nationalist pride and to show that America has the upper hand in the world and beyond? This is a theory that has been around longer than I have been alive. Books and films have tried to unearth clues to support this claim. And even though most have accepted that the 1969 moon landing was indeed real, there’s still the tiniest hint of a voice inside some of us that asks, “What if?”

Matt Johnson reignites this fervor with his newest faux documentary. After the controversial but film festival-favorite THE DIRTIES showcased the actor and director roaming the halls of a real high school with his partner Owen Williams, Matt Johnson decided to use his unique storytelling style to venture to a new, distant place and era. OPERATION AVALANCHE follows a group of CIA paper pushers as they attempt to orchestrate possibly the greatest hoax in human history: stage the 1969 moon landing . The group’s mission quickly goes from impossible to dangerous when some mysterious figures seem determined to put an end to the secret project.

Comprised of fake archival footage filmed to look as if it was made during the 1960s, OPERATION AVALANCHE is a unique film that brings an unbelievable level of authenticity to the preposterous proceedings. Between the sets, costumes, locations, and songs, Johnson has exhausted a lot of effort to make the film look and sound as accurate to the period as possible. However, he has an almost fetishized approach to how he incorporates all the cameras and other forms of dated technology. The drama of the staged film attempts to stand in for the lack of drama within the characters. So much time is spent showing the mechanics and the “how” of this elaborate scheme instead of really looking at the characters and asking “why.”

When they start to create the “moon film,” Johnson has this sort of manic, jovial spirit. He becomes an enthusiastic larger than life character, much like Orson Welles. His manner is a little wearing at times, but it’s hard not to get wrapped up in the situations he is forced to deal with.

Between some fun montages quickly cut to music from the era, Johnson and his crew take viewers through a series of clever set pieces that are meant to raise the stakes of their fake film. Although they don’t always feel as tense as they should, an ingenious sequence where Johnson goes undercover to see Stanley Kubrick in action will put a smile on the face of film fans, and a car chase later on in the film creates some much-needed sparks. Better late than never, I guess.

OPERATION AVALANCHE purposefully blurs the line between fiction and non-fiction in such a fascinating way that you are never quite sure if these characters and their actions could have actually happened; that if there is some sort of truth to the conspiracy. Sometimes the fantasy is more interesting than the truth, and Matt Johnson takes full advantage of this by exploring one of the most fascinating conspiracy theories of all time. However, what makes OPERATION AVALANCHE so compelling isn’t so much the characters or the story, but the “what if” question at the heart of the subject.

Overall rating: 3.5 out of 5

OPERATION AVALANCHE is now playing in select theaters and at Landmark’s Tivoli Theatre in St. Louis

Interview: OPERATION AVALANCHE Director and Star Matt Johnson

Matt Johnson’s films could almost be described as half-truths or honest lies. They purposefully blur the line between fiction and non-fiction in such a fascinating way that you are never quite sure where the lie begins or ends. So it makes sense that my discussion with the young actor and director would include discussing the classic Orson Welles film F FOR FAKE and why he enjoys injecting truths into stories… or maybe it’s the other way around.

After the controversial but film festival favorite THE DIRTIES showcased the director roaming the halls of a real high school with his partner Owen Williams, Matt Johnson decided to use his unique storytelling style to venture to a new distant place and era. OPERATION AVALANCHE follows a group of CIA paper pushers as they attempt to orchestrate possibly the greatest hoax in human history: the 1969 moon landing. The group’s mission quickly goes from impossible to dangerous when some mysterious figures seem determined to put an end to the secret project. Comprised of “archival footage filmed during the 1960s,” OPERATION AVALANCHE is a unique film that is now playing in select theaters and opens in St. Louis on Friday. Look for my review then, but for now, enjoy my interview with the candid director.

We Are Movie Geeks: I feel like many of us go through a period of time when we suddenly become really interested in conspiracy theories. When did you first become interested in the fake moon conspiracy and did the documentary ROOM 237 and one of its stories about Stanley Kubrick directing the fake landing have anything to do with it?

MATT JOHNSON: That documentary was definitely an influence, but I think I was more interested in the moon landing as a kid than as an adult. I saw ROOM 237 at TIFF and thought “Wow! This is amazing.” I think it reminded me of how interested I was in that conspiracy story. But I didn’t think I would make a movie about it until much later when THE DIRTIES finished and I was thinking about what film to make next. I wanted to make a historical film – about some famous moment in history. When my producer (Matt Miller) and I stumbled on the fake moon landing as a story premise, we knew we had to do it.

I like conspiracies. One of my favorite movies is JFK. But I’m not really a conspiracy-head. I just love the stories. I think they are amazing.

WAMG: There’s a meta element to the film where you have art imitating life, which is essentially the main idea behind filmmaking. You’ve explored this with THE DIRTIES and now with OPERATION AVALANCHE where it sort of blurs what’s real and what’s not. What about this style of filmmaking interests you? Because you aren’t making a “documentary,” but you aren’t making an entirely fictional film since you are incorporating real moments with real people.

MJ: I’ll tell you what I like about it: you can do things that Hollywood movies or even just bigger budget movies could never do. I’m not saying “could never do” because they don’t want to do them, but “could never do” because the restrictions put on them make it impossible. Say for instance the car chase scene. You would never see that in a bigger budget film because they couldn’t take the risks with their actors that we can take. Those scenes where we are talking with real NASA staff and they are responding to us as real people (the crew posed as “documentarians” and got into NASA), you could never see that in a bigger budget movie. Those would be paid actors and that would be a set, not the real NASA building.

So, apart from it being quite frugal shooting in this style, we get paid off in really amazing ways and we get to do things that haven’t been done in mainstream movies. That’s why I’m interested in this. It’s not to say I will always make movies like this, but I think we have discovered some new territory telling stories in independent filmmaking.

WAMG: And have you ever had an interest in making a straight documentary? Are you intrigued at all in capturing reality and telling that style of story?

MJ: Of course it does, but what’s interesting to me is perverting that into some kind of narrative story. I think one day I will make a documentary because, frankly, I think it will be much easier than the stupid stuff we’re trying to do. But for now, I like taking as much from that aesthetic as I can and applying it to fiction. This is only my second movie, so I have got some ways to go before I really know what I’m doing.

WAMG: That’s true. You have some time.

Between the sets, costumes, locations, and songs, you have exhausted a lot of effort to make OPERATION AVALANCHE look as accurate to the period as possible. What was the hardest aspect of recreating this period of time?

MJ: From a production point of view, it was definitely finding environments that would pass as the 1960s. With THE DIRTIES, we could shoot anywhere we wanted – the world was our oyster. Here we had to be so specific. We were shooting in old universities and studios that were basically derelict. We had to find places that looked like they were still active but had the sense of the 1960s. It was really really hard.

I would say though that the biggest challenge was recreating that section with Stanley Kubrick. That took months and months and months.

WAMG: How long did the shoot take overall?

MJ: We shot for 30 days one summer and then edited for a few months and then shot another 30-40 days over a mixed amount of time. We basically had a documentary production schedule where we shot for many many days not sequentially.

WAMG: At this point did you have investors already or were you shooting out of pocket?

MJ: We had a loan from a Canadian bank that was funding us based on a negative pick-up deal that Lionsgate made with us quite early on.

WAMG: That’s interesting. Is that how you did THE DIRTIES as well?

MJ: No. THE DIRTIES was made for $10,000 and I just paid for it myself.

WAMG: Oh wow!

When your character in the film starts to direct the “moon film” he has this sort of manic, jovial spirit. He becomes an enthusiastic larger than life, much like Orson Welles. Is that how you really are on set with your own films and were you influenced by anyone in particular for this character?

MJ: Orson Welles is a hero of mine and this film is very much influenced by his film F FOR FAKE.

WAMG: Yeah, I can see that.

MJ: I will say that the way I act in this movie is how I am in real life, especially with directing things. Now, I couldn’t tell you because I’m not self-aware enough if I have stolen any of that behavior from Orson Welles. I’ve never actually seen footage of him directing, so I’m not sure if he acts like that. For me, when I see myself acting that way, I see myself acting like a kid. I feel like I’m hanging out with my brother and we’re just yelling. It’s not really an impression of anyone. I’m just being myself.

WAMG: Was there any real tension on set while making OPERATION AVALANCHE? You obviously have the fake tension “on-set” which becomes integral to the plot of the film. Did any of those problems spill over?

MJ: Most of the stuff you see between me and the other actors is really coming from what we were feeling. A lot of that shoot was stressful since we were sneaking into places, working with a script that was not finished, and a lot of really frustrating things that happened. It was the same with THE DIRTIES. Much of that was more or less based from reality.

WAMG: So you just had an outline? You didn’t have any dialogue written?

MJ: Exactly. We had no dialogue written. It was just like THE DIRTIES. We were just making things up as we went along.

WAMG: Was that hard later in the editing room-

MJ: It was impossible!

WAMG: You include a lot of Kubrick posters in the background throughout the film and so it seems like you are clearly a fan of his work. Aside from all of the stuff that all film historians speak about regarding his work, is there anything about his films and his style that interests you?

MJ: It’s funny because both myself in real life and my character in the film only really love DR. STRANGELOVE. The other Kubrick films I don’t completely love. I think they are really cold and overly technical.

WAMG: That’s exactly how I feel about THE SHINING. I’ve never connected with that film like so many have.

MJ: Which is funny because OPERATION AVALANCHE is really technical and it sort of bears some of the same bad behavior that Kubrick has. But that’s not to say that I don’t respect him and think that he’s a master. I think DR. STRANGELOVE is one of the greatest movies ever made. What draws me to that is that he’s able to combine really light and easy performances with unbelievable technical rigor. Like Peter Sellers acting like he’s almost making up what he’s saying as he’s going while you’re watching these sets and these very specific camera setups is so amazing to me. It’s a huge inspiration for me. As a filmmaker, you can spend tons of energy making sure everything is perfect, but in terms of performances, you can just let people go.

WAMG: In regards to the moon landing – because there are some people who believe that it is a hoax – do you think it’s healthier that our country believes “the lie” if it is in fact a lie, or is it better to uncover the truth? Also, do you think there is any truth to the conspiracy?

MJ: No. I can guarantee there is absolutely no truth to it (the conspiracy). And I’m a good authority on this since I did try to fake the moon landing with my friends. There are a lot of really, really specific reasons why, especially considering video technology.

But the more interesting question you asked there is it better if Americans believe it was faked or not. That’s really interesting. I’ve never been asked that. In the movie INTERSTELLAR they play with that a little bit. I hate that movie–

WAMG: You’re not the only one.

MJ: But they talk about the history of America and how it was more useful in that dust world to say that the moon landing was faked so that people didn’t think that American opulence in the 60s had run amok. I don’t know about that. Now, I’m not an American, but I actually think having a few major accomplishments as a uniting force is quite good. I don’t think it would be good if it was faked. Let’s say if it was faked, then I think it would be worse if the world knew.

WAMG: Finally, what are some film projects you have lined up for the near future?

MJ: There are two movies we’re going to make. One is about a time machine and the other is the third film in this Matt and Owen trilogy where they get in over their heads. We’re going to make both of those movies but one of them is going to start early 2018.

OPERATION AVALANCHE is now playing in limited release and opens in St. Louis on Friday, October 7th.

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