"Steve Jobs" Review

With Steve Jobs, Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 127 Hours) directs a script from Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing, The Social Network) based on Walter Isaacson's best-selling biography

The drama here centers around the events backstage at three product launches which signify three distinct eras in Jobs' life and career. Thus, the entire movie is really just three extended scenes.

1984 - the Macintosh represents the culmination of Jobs' misguided, unchecked hubris leading to his firing from Apple. For you cinematography nerds, this section of the film was shot on 16mm film stock. Grain levels are high, and you can see the scratches and burns in the image itself. 

1988 - the NeXT Black Cube is Jobs' independed project that serves as a mere stunt in order to win back Apple's good graces. Shot on 35mm film stock.

1998 - the original iMac serves as the climax of Jobs' aspirations in personal computing. His relationships with other characters such as Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen), Andy Hertzfeld (Michael Stuhlbarg), Joanna Hoffman (Kate Winslet), and his daughter Lisa (in this era, Perla Haney-Jardine) come to a head as well. Shot on the latest digital cameras.

Though deliberately and rather uniquely structured for a biopic, this is one of Sorkin's weakest screenplays. He seems content to let the dialogue be little more than quips for the characters to shout at one another. As for the direction, this feels like Danny Boyle directing a David Fincher film. The material doesn't suit Boyle's stylistic proclivities as well as it does Fincher's. In fact I couldn't even tell I was watching a Boyle movie until the last five minutes.

Still, at least it's less vanilla than the Ashton Kutcher version.

What keeps the film watchable are the incredible acting performances. Fassbender is as good as, if not better than, he's ever been despite the fact he looks nothing at all like Jobs. Winslet and Katherine Waterston (playing Jobs' muse Chrisann Brennan) are wonderful in meaty roles as the only females who can stand up to Jobs' domineering, boorish personality. Rogen gives the dramatic performance of his life as Wozniak. Many of the film's strongest moments are when he is on screen trading barbs with Fassbender. One of the best scenes comes in 1988 where they meet in the pit of the San Francisco orchestra for a private conversation about their individual contributions to personal computing.

I think my favorite part though is also during the '88 section where Steve finds himself in an empty room with John Scully (Jeff Daniels), Apple's CEO. Their meet-cute is pretty corny. Scully is sitting in a chair at the end of this long, empty room as if planning for the random chance that Jobs might wander in and see him. From there, the next 5-7 minutes are a master class in elliptical editing and narrative economy. Boyle uses these tools to build tension and deliver character development at the same time. The conversation eventually devolves into quip-shouting, but at least here it makes sense. This is as tense a scene as I've witnessed in any film this year.

At the time of this posting, Steve Jobs is projected to put up only $7.5 million in its first weekend of nationwide release. That's sad because I think this film is worthy of attention, and I wouldn't be surprised at all to see a big Oscar campaign built around it. However it is neither the best movie of the year nor does it live up to the full potential of a dream Boyle-Sorkin team-up.

B-