Sharp and Cold.

Rating: 8/10 (26 October 2015)

This is the 2nd Steve Jobs movie this year, (the first being a documentary film) and the fourth feature film about Steve Jobs. I'm sure many people are wondering, do we really need another Steve Jobs movie? Well I can tell you that after this one we sure don't.
Unlike your typical biopic, this movie takes place during three specific events in the life of Jobs: the launch of the Macintosh in 1984, the launch of NeXT in 1988 and the launch of the Mac in 1998. Some flashbacks do interlace with the launches but the flashbacks are very brief. If you're looking for a movie that examines the entire life of Jobs then you won't find that here.
The three acts format really make the movie unique and unlike any other kind of biopic, we see Jobs grow from an angry almost-dictator of a man to one who grows to care about his family, and us caring about him comes from Michael Fassbender's excellent job at portraying Steve. He might not look anything like him but he sure knocks Ashton Kutcher out of the park. I'm 90% sure his role as Jobs will be nominated for an Oscar.
In fact pretty much everyone in this movie does a great job, even the child actor who played Jobs' daughter did a good job. But seeing as how the three acts of the movie each take before a product launch it does seem a bit strange that they all show up to talk to him. It seems that everyone that Jobs knows shows up during the three acts. It's strange.
The movie is also beautifully shot. As the movie progresses throughout the three acts it progresses from 16mm film, 35mm film and finally digital. It's meant to show technological advancement and it works, the film looks crisp and sharp.
But alas this isn't a movie that's for everyone. The movie is entirely dialogue driven and it almost surely thinks that the audience has knowledge of the inner workings of a computer seeing as how many arguments within the movie (and trust me, there's a LOT of them) are entirely about the different types of tech used in a computer. Unless you know your computers, you're going to be lost when watching these scenes. Simply put the movie doesn't hold your hand and explain everything to you.
But it would help if it did. Multiple events in the career of Jobs and the history of Apple are also referred to in passing throughout the movie and (once again) unless you know your history, you'll be confused at these references. I wouldn't usually recommend a terrible movie but in this case I recommend watching the Ashton Kutcher Steve Jobs movie before watching this one as it shows multiple events that are referenced to in this movie.
Arguments make up a good deal of this movie, I'd say about 95% of it and they work at capturing your attention. My favorite scenes in the movie where the ones where Steve is arguing with his ex-girlfriend over his daughter and financial issues.
Overall, Steve Jobs is a finely crafted movie. The acting is great, cinematography is sharp, the story is even better. Definitely an Oscar contender. The movie is barely 2 hours long but I feel like it could have covered a bit more. Most biopics are around 2 and a half hours long anyways so I feel like the movie could have shown us a bit more of Steve's life.
I'm going to give Steve Jobs a B+