8.5/10

Rating: 8/10 (28 January 2016)

This movie is on fire! The energy every scene beams from the screen in unbelievable. This is one of those films where you don't have time to stop and think and were at that point you realize "man, I am watching a real movie".
I mean, you are thrown right into the action from frame one and it takes you ten minutes to realize the train that just hit you. I clearly remember stopping for a second in the theater after the first ten minutes had passed and looking around and realizing what a flawless piece of acting and dialogue I was watching. It was something unlike anything I had ever experienced, to realize what Fassbender and Winslet were doing.
I am telling you these performances are gems of acting. The two of them give both one of those performances that makes you remember why you fall in love with cinema in the first place. Alongside Rooney Mara in Carol this is the best acting there's been in a film all year. And it is true, essential acting, not DiCaprio acting. This is where both the actor and the acting disappear and there is only the character left on screen and it is a marvel to look at. The supporting cast is also amazingly good and when elevated by the leads it makes for some real, palpable authenticity on screen.
Yet, nothing of this could be possible if, of course, in first place Sorkin wasn't such a good, intelligent, brilliant writer that understands screen writing in the most unique yet fascinating way, but even more so the genius of Danny Boyle. He directs this film to perfection. It could be really easy to overdo things and meddle with them, resulting in an unbalanced result. But Boyle is just too good for it, he know the power of the screenplay and doesn't invade it, but thanks to some very subtle work he manages to elevate it and energize it even more. He really is a fantastic, visual storyteller, who by the way also makes a use of sound and music, breathtaking here. Fantastic score.
And curiously enough I have realized that I haven't even yet mentioned anything about Steve Jobs himself or the true story aspect, and that is probably the movie's greatest triumph. It does "true story" possibly the most right it could ever reach. it understands a film is a film and it is meant to be a narrative piece of drama or comedy and it nails that. It is a film about characters and emotions that just happens to be a true story and it uses that as a background, as a support, as a subtle mean of storytelling, which is how it should be used because it definitely is the most effective it can be, not when it is in the foreground, shoving emotions down your throat and banging you over the head with messages of morality.
The film unfortunately does have its own limitations and even acknowledges them. The three act structure it uses totally worked for me and I wouldn't change a thing about it, but it did make it possible for the thematic underscore of the film to be absorbed in all of its facets on the first viewing. I might change idea when I check it out again.
This is some the very best cinema 2015 offered us, I am truly saddened that not enough people have seen this. On Oscar night, even though I don't care that much, I will be rooting for Winslet and especially Fassbender, he is the greatest actor I can think of right now, I adore his craft to death.