This is a boxed experience, by which it's clear whom has written it. Style can be great. This is intense, which is cool. It's convoluted. Can be very good. It's not complicated, but often a dirge in reverse; the dialogue is basically the same for all characters, which are all dressed differently. That's an issue that I dislike with Sorkin's films. Well, while a lot of people often behave similarly in real life, it's a murky feature to me, that stands out like broken pixels in a computer screen.
Having stated the above points, the film succeeds in displaying Jobs as a flawed person, but given all the hoo-hah that occurs during the film, due to everything happening during Apple events, it's hard to see his self. Well. I can't say I could or would have seen his self during other times, but the documentary "Steve Jobs: The Man In The Machine" gives much more flesh to Jobs' bones, where this film appears quite shallow. Good acting and, at times, stellar writing is interesting, but as a whole, this film does not work for me. It's scatterbrained, amidst all of its seemingly good intentions and radiance. I rather recommend the documentary to this film.
This film is criminally underrated as honestly, it is Michael Fassbender's (Steve Jobs) best performance as I was just lost in his performance of Jobs as at times it almost felt like I was watching the man himself. Working in IT I will say Steve Jobs is one of the most if not the most important person in computing history as his revolutionized the world so much and this film doesn't shy away from showing that, but also showing how much of a tormented genius he was as sometimes he didn't know how to show his true emotions to people and came off as a bit of a dick but the truth was this was a man who had many different problems in his life.
As the film goes through these three very important moments in the tech industry but also in Steve Jobs life you see his character slowly change through each one of these events and I'd say the main influence was due to his daughter Lisa Brennan-Jobs who was played just so perfectly by all three of the actresses as Makenzie Moss, Ripley Sobo and Perla Haney-Jardine were just so perfect in this film to play opposite Fassbender.
Also, Kate Winslet (Joanne Hoffman), Seth Rogen (Steve Wozniak) and Jeff Daniels (John Sculley) were awesome in this film as all the conversations the characters have throughout the film felt really natural and that is down to both the direction from Danny Boyle and writing by Aaron Sorkin.
If you are still eager for more tech biopics and also interested in Steve Jobs, then I recommend watching Pirates of Silicon Valley which is another underrated gem of cinema.
So I've finally got a chance to watch "Steve Jobs" over the weekend and I thought it was pretty good. Michael Fassbender and Kate Winslet both gave a terrific performance, as the chemistry between the two was convincing and enjoyable to watch. The writing and the directing is this movies biggest strength, because the movie is non-stop talking and that's what this movie really is, and I know this isn't going to be for everyone, but for me, I was engaged all the way through and I honestly can't recall being bored while watching the movie. My biggest praise that I have for this movie has to go to Danny Boyle and Aaron Sorkin, because filming and writing a movie like this isn't easy (trust me).
The problems I have for the movie are very small and many people wouldn't be bothered by this, but this is just me. The little kid actor in the movie (Who plays Steve Jobs young daughter) she wasn't bad, as I thought she did alright for the most part, but there were a few times when I noticed some slip ups. But that's just a mini problem and the rest of the performances from everyone was great.
Overall Steve Jobs is a well made film with clever writing, outstanding acting and directing. It's a shame that this movie was pulled from many theaters because nobody wanted to see it. Jem and the Holograms and Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, both sh*t movies that managed to stay in cinemas, but this movie didn't.
Aaron Sorkin gives the Apple co-founder some close scrutiny in this unflattering portrait, cleverly framed around three key product launches. Caught at his most over-stressed, Jobs often comes off as both the smartest man in the room and the most heartless, a difficult mix that's expertly managed by Michael Fassbender in the leading role. Fassbender doesn't even remotely look the part, but his ruthless conviction and forceful, melting gaze make the act easy to swallow despite that. It's also true of Seth Rogen, actually, who seems a bizarre choice to play celebrated engineer Steve Wozniak, but pulls it off against all odds in several tastefully limited appearances.
This isn't the typical biopic, spanning a figure’s entire life and spinning it all into one grand, epic journey with a happy ending. Instead, it's a concise, efficient peek through the window at three turning points in the man's history: his biggest gamble (Macintosh), his greatest spin (NeXT) and his ultimate redemption (iMac). The products get their moments to shine, as does Jobs's infamous penchant for micro-management, but the real story focuses on his relationship with an unwanted, unaccepted daughter and the betrayal of an adoptive pseudo-father. There's warmth in the script, and in its focal figure, but also a terrible, heartbreaking coldness on both fronts that seems painfully real.
It may not be the whole story (several heavy moments are fabricated in the name of plot) but it's enough to convey a better understanding of its subject as a human being, warts and all. A terrific effort, moving and entertaining the whole way through, that's merits watching whether you love the ubiquitous brand or loathe it.
I didn’t know much about the Apple Corporation and its history prior to watching this film, and I didn’t know much more when it finished. The same can’t be said about the subject of this film, a man credited with revolutionising the mobile telephone.
When you have an actor as good as Michael Fassbender as the lead, it makes sense to give him as much screen time as possible, and Fassbender probably appears in every frame of the film, or at least every scene. His interactions with Steve Wozniak (a very impressive Seth Rogen) and assistant Joanna Hoffman (the always excellent Kate Winslet) probably take the most time, but the ones which have the most emotional resonance are with his daughter, Lisa, played by three actresses as she grows up from age 5 to 19.
The setting of the film, at his famous launches, allows you to see into his interactions with the most significant people in his life, how he prepares for the public, what product he is about to sell to the world and the state of the business. This is probably the most aesthetically low-key film Danny Boyle has made, but the visuals suit the subject and the technology for which he was famous. It isn’t a typical biopic, it’s a film which tries to get to the private Steve Jobs, the man with poor interpersonal skills, a difficult childhood, and a strange way of interacting with his daughter.
When I said I didn’t learn much about Apple computers or phones, it’s not a problem because it’s not something which interests me. What I wanted was an engaging and somewhat informative character study of the main subject, the film delivered exactly that and that’s why I will quite happily watch it again.
Review by abetancortBlockedParent2016-01-23T18:49:40Z
This movie have been grossly misunderstood by some of the critics and in particular by Apple's and Steve Jobs' followers. Aaron Sorkin never intended to make a "BioPic" on Steve Jobs or a factual account of Apple Inc. history.
You have to take a step back to realize that film is not only good from a pure point of view of a movie and its real goal to be entertaining, believable and keep you wondering what would happen next even if you know the end; it is also a skillful exploitation of one of Steve's most brilliant and perfected talents, the art of storytelling.
What Sorking is doing with the script and in the movie is using Jobs own tool to tell us how Steve was and why he was that way, and using not facts but distorting reality to tell us how he was beyond what most people got to see of him. Aaron successfully [IMHO] conveys to the audience, who went to the theater to see something beyond another Valley it story, the character, the charisma, the troubled personality, the strategist, the salesman, the pragmatic leader, the tumbling learner, the resilient, the solitary, the perfectionist, the story teller, the selective amnesiac that was Steve Jobs and unique blend of traits that made him the unique leader, visionary that enabled him to thrive where most would simply would have failed.
Steve Jobs was all that, a Genius and an Asshole, an one could not have been without the other. And here it is where the movie (all the cast, director and everyone else) and Aaron Sorkin are simply brilliantly succeeded in transmitting us, through a simple story, that Jobs could not have been his best without his worse. His worse simply made him be his best and the other way around, both at the same time most of the time.