Not a Traditional Biopic but Still Very Good

Rating: 7/10 (25 October 2015)

This movie was different from what I thought it was going to be but it's still very interesting. Basically the whole movie is Steve Jobs ( if you don't know who he is then go Google the name but I'm going to assume you all haven't been living under a rock) having conversations with people before important reveals of his products. I have serious doubts about how accurate these events are simply because of how perfect it would be for all this drama to happen in this way but it's still very well done drama. Aaron Sorkin's script is pretty good and Danny Boyle always makes something interesting to see. It's certainly better than that other Steve Jobs movie. Let's get to the story.
The plot follows Steve Jobs (Michael Fassbender) as he prepares himself before going onstage for three different product reveals: the original Macintosh in 1984, the Next in 1988, and the iMac in 1998. His life is radically different in each of these time periods but the story follows his relationship with the same group of people throughout the years. The main gist of what's happening is that Jobs has quite a few problems with his personal life and his business relations that make things more complicated than they really need to be. This is because Jobs is kind of a prick. Well, he's not kind of a prick he's more like a full blown asshole. Still, he has some interesting ideas.
Another film with a stellar cast, there just seems to be a lot of excellent actors working today. Fassbender plays the sometimes likable but often confrontational Steve Jobs. I really enjoyed Fassbender's portrayal simply because of his ability to be likable and completely standoffish at the same time. I've heard stories that Steve Jobs was sometimes hard to work with but I can't help but wonder if they went a little overboard here. Still, Fassbender did an excellent job. Kate Winslet does an excellent job as Joanna Hoffman, one of the executives at Apple and Jobs' confidant. She plays well off of Fassbender. I love that she doesn't put up with any crap while all the others have so much trouble with Jobs.
The other five characters that Jobs interacts with are Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen), John Sculley (Jeff Daniels), Andy Hertzfeld (Michael Stuhlbarg), Chrisann Brennan (Katherine Waterston), and Lisa Brennan (Makenzie Moss, Ripley Sobo, and Perla Haney-Jardine). Honestly, I don't think there's a weak link in any of these actors and actresses. They all do an excellent job and it's actually a tall order for me to say that about child actors. I don't want to go into too much of these characters' motivations since I feel like that would give away a bit much of the plot but they do a great job and I just wanted to give them a mention. The whole movie basically centers around conversations with these characters.
So, the whole movie centers around conversations a small set of people which means this isn't exactly a biopic in the traditional sense of the term. We don't really see how Jobs gets into the industry or anything like that. We see the occasional flashback but the film hinges on the interactions between Jobs and those around him. I believe that the movie was trying to portray an obviously flawed individual that had an enormous impact on our everyday lives and our very history. The philosophy this man followed caused trouble to those around him but it changed the very way we interact with the world. Unfortunately, he wasn't at all easy to deal with. The movie shows us his personal attitude and the impact he had on others through his interactions with a group of less than ten characters. There is a passage of time in the film but fifteen years is relatively short for a biopic. I believe Boyle wanted us to see what kind of man he was rather than give a full rundown of his life.
The movie isn't perfect but I thought it was still pretty good. There are a few parts that made me roll my eyes. I won't spoil it but Jobs makes references to ideas for items that we have in the future but didn't exist back then. I know Jobs was ahead of his time but I find it hard to believes that he was responsible for every good idea that came out of Apple. Like I said, the film is pretty good but don't go in expecting an incredibly accurate and detailed telling of the life of Steve Jobs. If you like dramatic conversations that reveal insight into the characters then I believe this movie should entertain you for a while.