
This particular film has two major advantages over its other, lesser brethren. Winslet’s work will almost certainly earn her an Oscar nomination. Steve Jobs the film benefits from Winslet as much as Jobs the man benefited from Hoffman. She stands up for Jobs but also stands up to him she’s the only person in the film with the ability to cut through Steve’s much-mythologized “reality distortion field.” But she also pushes the story forward, shuttling Steve through dressing rooms, backstage hallways, and tense conversations with people pushed to the edge by Jobs’ fiery personality. Despite being wholly absent from other Jobs-related movies, Hoffman is a critical element in Jobs’ operation.
STEVE JOBS 2015 REVIEW MOVIE
The movie profits hugely from Kate Winslet’s performance as Joanna Hoffman, Jobs’ loyal and long-suffering head of marketing. But he turns in such a stellar performance that, by the time we see him graying and New Balance-clad, all is forgiven. At the outset, it’s almost distracting how little Fassbender looks like Jobs.

This claustrophobic universe is a nice artistic parallel to Steve’s nitpicking omnipresence. Fassbender’s Jobs paces from one scene to the next, rarely ever seated. Literally - he’s in almost every single frame, and is involved in almost every piece of dialogue in the movie. Michael Fassbender, starring as Jobs, carries most of the film on his own. It starts at a low boil and continues cranking until its soaring, oddly emotional finale. So why should you see this Danny Boyle-directed rehash? Because, of the entire bunch, it’s the only film worth watching.Įarlier films like the awful, Kutcher-led Jobs and Pirates of Silicon Valley dwelled endlessly on Steve’s formative years - the shaggy halcyon days in the garage, his dabbling in psychedelics.īut Steve Jobs cuts right to the goddamn chase. A genius makes some great stuff, is a harsh boss and an asshole father, dies, and is mourned the world over. But it’s not until 19-year-old Lisa (a stellar Perla Haney-Jardine) fights her controlling, withholding dad on his terms that Jobs takes his first real steps toward her.But even if you buy into the cultish Apple fandom (I tend to), the amount of ink spilled about Jobs can seem like a little much. Nine-year-old Lisa (Ripley Sobo) gets closer to the old man.

She berates Moneybags for letting his former lover Chrisann Brennan (Katherine Waterston) live on welfare and for denying paternity of their five-year-old daughter, Lisa (Makenzie Moss). As played by the glorious Kate Winslet, award-caliber and radiating grit and grace, Hoffman is the one person ready to give shit to the boss.
STEVE JOBS 2015 REVIEW SOFTWARE
Michael Stuhlbarg shows us the pain in software developer Andy Hertzfeld, who suffers the wrath of Jobs for failing to make the Mac prototype say “hello.” And Jeff Daniels, an iconic Sorkin interpreter on HBO’s The Newsroom, nails every nuance as John Sculley, the Apple CEO who fires Jobs and sparks his cruel revenge.Ĭan anyone tame this perfectionist beast? Polish-born marketing chief Joanna Hoffman comes close. A superb Seth Rogen finds the bruised heart in Steve “Woz” Wozniak, the Apple co-founder who can’t laugh off Jobs’ refusal to credit his team with the success of the Apple II computer. The actors could not be better, as they thrust and parry over 14 years with the man who compares himself to Julius Caesar, an emperor surrounded by enemies.

Still, their actions and reactions have the ring of harsh, abstract truth. Sorkin moves characters around his cinematic chessboard (shades of Birdman) with little regard to whether they were actually present during Jobs’ backstage rampages.
STEVE JOBS 2015 REVIEW HOW TO
Boyle also knows how to fill the spaces between words so they reveal the emotions of the multitudes who come and go in Jobs’ hectic life. It’s a challenge worth taking.Ĭheers to master filmmaker Danny Boyle ( Slumdog Millionaire, Trainspotting, 127 Hours) for directing Sorkin’s three-act play with the hurtling speed of a white-knuckle thriller. Echoing Jobs’ rush to the next big thing, Sorkin counts on you to keep up. Dazed by the tech-speak and whirling innovations? Sorkin offers no sympathy. The final part, utilizing high-def digital, takes place in 1998 at San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall, where Jobs, back calling the shots at Apple, gives the iMac its famed send-off. The second part, presented on widescreen 35mm, unfurls at the sleek San Francisco Opera House in 1988 when Jobs, axed by Apple, presents his NeXT cube to mass indifference. The first part, shot on low-res 16mm film, is set in 1984 in Cupertino, California, where Jobs, 29, debuts the Macintosh.
