Directed by: Danny Boyle
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Jeff Daniels, Seth Rogen, Katherine Waterston, Michael Stuhlbarg. MacKenzie Moss, Ripley Sobo, Perla Haney-Jardine, John Ortiz
Steve Jobs is like a three-act play about the iconic Apple co-founder. It could almost be right out of Shakespeare. We see why people he loved or loved him had such a love/hate relationship with him. He could be funny, charming, cold, calculating, and spiteful all within the span of a two-minute conversation. Mules call this man stubborn. His success and failures all hinge on his belief that only he knows how to project his vision to the world. As Steve Jobs opens, he threatens his chief programmer with banishment from the computer world if he is unable to get his new product to say "hello" to an enthralled audience of 3,000 people. We sense he isn't kidding around. What seems like a small, insignificant detail to others means the world to him. That's what ultimately matters.
Most of the action centers around three distinct days in Jobs' life. One in 1984, 1988, and 1998. In each, he is preparing for a product launch that will revolutionize the computer industry. Jobs (Fassbender) is besieged with problems, both personal and professional. Some of these are handled by his strong-willed right hand Joanna Hoffman (Winslet), who may be the only person in the world who can speak to him so honestly and directly without getting fired. Others involve his former girlfriend Crisanne (Waterston), who is looking for money from Jobs and acknowledgement that he is the father of her daughter Lisa. He denies paternity despite blood tests proving that he is 94% likely to be the father. How does he deny it? By dreaming up a cockamamie formula which asserts that Lisa's father could be 28% of the male population of the United States. This is not flattering to Crisanne, but her feelings are not top priority for him.
People in his life, from Lisa to Crisanne to co-founder Steve Wozniak (Rogen) to Apple CEO John Sculley (Daniels) drop in on him to lay out their most recent issues with him. Wozniak simply wants public acknowledgment of his team's hard work, which Jobs refuses to do because the launch isn't about the past but the future. The more Wozniak pleads with him, the more Jobs digs in his heels. Sculley is not thrilled with Jobs' use of skinheads in the company's most recent Superbowl ad. Sculley is concerned that the board will oust Jobs because he's a prick to work with. Jobs is unreasonably expecting 1 million units of his new Mac to be sold within 90 days. If that doesn't happen, Sculley and the board may gleefully fire him. Even though the Mac isn't compatible with any other systems or equipment, Jobs is convinced of its worth. Failure number one.
News footage is used to bridge the gaps between the three acts. We learn of Jobs' dismissal from Apple and his creation of Next, a new company which promises a perfectly cubed computer. Once again, he has a closed system which will limit its usefulness. Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Jobs thinks he is the exception to this rule. Steve Jobs is unique because it subtly shows how failures, not necessarily successes, shaped him. He does not transform into a lovable teddy bear at the end, but he is able to reconcile with his daughter and somehow straighten out his trajectory. Writer Aaron Sorkin and director Boyle work at a hectic pace. Steve Jobs does not take time to catch its breath. We have to think fast to keep up. Sorkin's Oscar-winning screenplay for The Social Network (2010) also focuses on a socially awkward computer genius. The comparisons are similar. He knows his stuff, even if the script throws out a few too many obscure references and one-liners just to show us how smart it is.
Fassbender is aptly able to juggle Jobs' arrogance, brilliance, coldness, and surprising humanity (not that there's a lot where that came from) without getting whiplash. He turns in a captivating performance and his Oscar nomination was well deserved. Winslet is nearly his equal, speaking in a slight Eastern European influenced accent which compels Jobs to call her "Yentl". She is perhaps the only person on Earth who knows the right way to talk to Jobs and even influence him. He respects her and is loyal. Their relationship does not become sexual, but they definitely admire and respect each other. Winslet and Fassbender have great chemistry, not a small detail in a film like this.
Steve Jobs doesn't completely take us inside Jobs. It holds us outside to an extent, but it moves along quickly and intelligently. I admired the subtlety that somehow exists between the dialogue and the frenetic pace. It takes some work to catch it, but it gives us a nice payoff. Especially the scene in which Jobs confesses to Lisa that yes he did indeed name his operating system after her. It's a nice scene.
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