Netflix Just Added One Of 2024’s Biggest Oscar Snubs

One of the biggest snubs of the 2024 Oscars season was just added to Netflix over the weekend, and it’s a must-watch modern classic. This movie earned a near-perfect 97% Rotten Tomatoes score along with a 94% audience score, making it one of the most critically acclaimed movies not only of 2024, but of the 2020s thus far.

Despite its universal critical acclaim and fan approval, this 2023 financial docudrama chronicles the true story of the meteoric rise and eventual disastrous downfall of the company behind the world’s first smartphone. In a similar vein to The Social Network and Steve Jobs, BlackBerry is an exceptionally crafted biopic that all Netflix subscribers should check out this week.

Netflix Just Added BlackBerry – What It’s About

BlackBerry was just added to Netflix on Sunday, March 15, and is one of the very best new movies available to stream on Netflix right now. Somehow remarkably, BlackBerry earned a higher Rotten Tomatoes score than David Fincher’s The Social Network (96%), which is often considered one of the most influential movies of the 21st century. The Social Network won three Oscars in 2011, including Best Adapted Screenplay for Aaron Sorkin and Best Original Score for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and BlackBerry didn’t even receive a nomination.

While most of the world already knew about Mark Zuckerberg and the rise of Facebook when The Social Network came out in 2010, the story of the BlackBerry’s origins was far less known, or forgotten, by audiences when the movie came out in 2023. BlackBerry follows Mike Lazaridis, played by Jay Baruchel, and Doug Fregin, played by director Matt Johnson, as they invent the BlackBerry and struggle to find an investor who believes in the product. They meet Jim Balsillie, played by Glenn Howerton, who relentlessly finds a way to make BlackBerry an international success as its CEO.

Part of the fun of BlackBerry is that, apart from the true story inspiration, it also serves as a comedy and a period piece set in the early 1990s. The film is both endearing and intense, following a group of misfits who enter the fiercely competitive world of business thanks to their revolutionary product, the BlackBerry smartphone. Of course, BlackBerry is also somewhat of a tragic story, since it fell from being the leading smartphone provider in the world to closing its doors on all smartphone production in 2016.

BlackBerry Deserved To Be In 2024’s Oscar Race

While dramatized, BlackBerry is a fascinating, exciting, and often humorous movie that was projected to be an underdog in the 2024 Oscar race when it was released in mid-November 2013 by IFC Films. At the very least, BlackBerry earned some buzz for individual actor awards, particularly Glenn Howerton’s portrayal of Jim, which channels plenty of his signature Dennis Reynolds energy from his hit comedy series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

There was also a case for BlackBerry to be nominated in the Adapted Screenplay category, as it was adapted from the novel Losing the Signal by Sean Silcoff and Jacquie McNish by Johnson and Matthew Miller. Ultimately, BlackBerry received zero Academy Award nominations during its year of eligibility. That said, Howerton did receive nominations from the Independent Spirit Awards and the Gotham Awards for his supporting performance.

BlackBerry joins another famous 2024 Oscar snub, the sports drama The Iron Claw, as two of the best new movies recently added to Netflix. Both are absolutely worth watching and deserved at least one nomination apiece. 2024 was a pretty stacked Oscar year with massive blockbusters like Barbie and Oppenheimer, as well as critical darlings such as Poor Things, Past Lives, Anatomy of a Fall, and The Zone of Interest. Regardless, BlackBerry is now streaming on Netflix and is one of the best movies to watch this week on the platform.