STEVE JOBS

GRADE: A+

Starring Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, Michael Stuhlbarg and Jeff Daniels

Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin

Directed by Danny Boyle

Rated R (Profanity)

Reviewed by Paul & Patrick Gibbs

 

We don't really care anything about Apple or Steve Jobs. Paul marginally prefers the Mac operating system to the PC (particularly if that's the one he's currently used to using), but isn't passionate about it, and that's about as close as we come to giving a flying hard drive about the whole Apple revolution, the state of the computer industry today, and what Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Murray Bozinsky or anyone else contributed to it. We recognize that nearly everything we do is shaped by the work these people did to create the computers of today, but just don't really care. It's not our thing. 

But we loved Danny Boyle and Aaron Sorkin's Steve Jobs. 

 As with The Social Network, the clear spiritual father to this film, it's a matter of brilliant writing, filmmaking, storytelling and acting pulling us into a film based on a subject matter which does nothing to interest us.  Whether or not he's fair or accurate (and we are not the people to judge this), Sorkin has a gift for turning modern tech moguls into Shakespearean tragedies. This time he's employed a unique narrative structure: three acts, each taking place backstage as Jobs is getting ready

to debut a new product. In 1984, the Macintosh computer. In 1988, the NeXT box. And in 1998, the iMac.  The interaction between jobs and his associates reveals him to be brilliant (though more with vision than actual technical know-how) but to see the least difficult to get along with. Michael Fassbender's Jobs has an ego which may even eclipse his remarkable talents, and he clashes with everyone, from close associate Joanna Hoffman (Kate Winslet) to tech wizard to Apple II designer Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen) to team member Andy Herzfeld (Michael Stuhlbarg) to Apple CEO and surrogate father figure John Sculley (Jeff Daniels), and most especially with his ex-girlfriend Chrisann Brennan (Katherine Waterston). Jobs' most complex relationship (and the one at the heart of the film) is with Brennan's young daughter Lisa (played by different actresses at three ages) who Chrisann and a blood test claim is Steve's daughter even if he refuses to acknowledge it.

Sorkin's supremely witty and insightful dialogue is as strong as it's ever been. As usual, it's a minor distraction that everyone in the film (sometimes even young Lisa) would qualify as one of the more clever members of the Algonquin Roundtable, but it's difficult to complain about dialogue, and Sorkin always manages to add enough depth to his characterizations to avoid his work feeling phony. And his work here is more than ably enhanced by the excellent direction of Oscar-winner Boyle and a phenomenal cast that doesn't miss a single note. Fassbender will get the lion's share of the accolades, and nothing said will be undeserved. It's among the best performance he's ever given, and when you consider such work as his supporting turn in 12 Years A Slave that's high praise indeed.  His Steve is charismatic enough to make us understand the mogul's magnetism and yet repellant much of the time (as Rogen's Wozniak declares "It's not binary: you can be decent and gifted."). Underneath the egotism there's a layer of insecurity, beneath that is more egotism, bemath that there's neurosis, and beneath that there's more egotism. What's beneath that? The film doesn't definitively answer, nor should it.

Fassbender is more than capably supported by the rest of the cast. It's very difficult to pick the stand outs among such a talented ensemble: Daniels brings gravitas and credibility to his role, Winslet matches Fassbender's intensity and magnetism in every scene, and Rogen shows presence and dramatic chops never hinted at in films like The Green Hornet. And we always have to draw special attention to Stuhlbarg, our pick as the most underappreciated actor working in film today. Boyle's direction is both more restrained and just as inventive as ever. He's taken a script he feels like a wordy stage play and directed it as a visual, visceral film without ever letting his directorial touches become self-indulgent or overbearing. And he helps bring a heart to the film in a way few other directors can. There are moments in Steve Jobs which would probably plays too hokey and sentimental coming from almost anyone else, but Boyle has developed a sincerity (most prominently on display in Slumdog Millionaire) which reminds us of us Steven Spielberg. He can make even contrived or seemingly sappy moments feel genuine.

There's sure to be a lot of debate about whether the film is fair or accurate. We don't know and honestly don't care that much. We still don't care about Steve Jobs, but we care a lot about Steve Jobs because it's an excellent film.