Barring some extraordinary circumstance, this will be the last Oscar film I get the chance to see before the ceremony next Sunday. It’s one that I was a little skeptical about – though I can’t deny that Aaron Sorkin writes them well, I wasn’t sure we strictly needed another “abrasive tech genius” biopic from him – but I found it to be pretty interesting and really well-made.
Almost the polar opposite of a comprehensive biopic, Steve Jobs is incredibly laser-focused. With the exception of a few well-placed flashbacks and montages of news coverage to get from one segment to the next, the entire movie depicts the buildup to three separate product launches: the Macintosh in 1984, the Next in 1988, and the iMac in 1998. Yep, buildup – the running around and behind-the-scenes drama (both professional and personal) that goes on in the 30-40 minutes prior to each launch. Naturally, abrasive tech geniuses generate their fair share of drama. Jobs’s chief conflicts concern his partner Steve Wozniak, Apple’s CEO Jeff Sculley, and his unacknowledged daughter Lisa.
Considering that this film is at least 90% talking, it held my attention quite well. I don’t find Jobs to be a particularly likeable figure – not surprisingly – but he’s an intriguing one. The pull between his blind stubbornness/refusal to consider what customers are looking for (insisting on a closed system that’s incompatible with everything else) and his savvy vision for the potential of personal computing (promising products for which the technology doesn’t yet exist, trusting that it’ll be able to catch up to him) keeps him from being one-dimensional. Even as I hate the way he treats everyone around as expendable, I like the way he shapes the world to fit his imagination. (He’s still awful, though. Seriously – piece. Of. Work.)
Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin was the main creative name I heard behind the film, which, given The Social Network, makes sense. However, until I started actually watching it, I had no idea that it was directed by Danny Boyle (where to start? Trainspotting, 127 Hours, National Theatre Live’s Frankenstein, Shallow Grave…) Sorkin’s smart screenplay is definitely a big part of the reason such a talky film works as well as it does, but Boyle’s work is instrumental, too. His deft hand and originality is evident all throughout the effortlessly gorgeous direction. Since so much of Apple is tied to its unique style and inventive advertising, Boyle was an excellent choice to put this story on film.
It’s no surprise that everyone in the fine cast delivers a strong performance. Our nominees for the film are lead actor Michael Fassbender in the title role and supporting actress Kate Winslet as Joanna Hoffman, his long-suffering “work wife.” Fassbender plays all the various facets of Jobs with equal dedication, while Winslet is a solid, grounding presence throughout the film. Jeff Daniels (Sculley) and Seth Rogen (Wozniak) also do really well in their big scenes with Jobs, and I enjoy all three actresses who play Lisa at different ages.
Warnings
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