Like the real Steve Jobs' accomplishments, the accomplishment that is the film "Steve Jobs" isn't perfect, but at least in my MacBook, they both earn the label of genius.

Rating: 9/10 (24 October 2015)

When you watch the movie "Steve Jobs" (R, 2:02), you are witnessing genius. That's a word that shouldn't be used lightly, but here it fits – on multiple levels. The subject of this biopic is basically universally considered a genius for bringing personal computing into the homes of average people and changing our lives in other ways as well. But Jobs himself is only the most obvious example of genius in this particular motion picture. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, who also wrote the TV shows "The West Wing" and "The Newsroom" and films including "A Few Good Men", "The Social Network" and "Moneyball", once again shows his own genius for writing dialog and constructing scenes in which interactions among people become high drama. If anything, in the script for this film, he tops himself by giving the story a unique presentation. Add all that to the inspired direction of Oscar winner Danny Boyle (who won for directing 2007's Best Picture Oscar Winner "Slumdog Millionaire"), plus brilliant acting, and you have a film with genius to spare. Genius, however, doesn't necessarily equal perfection.
Steve Jobs, visionary genius that he was, was far from perfect – as an individual or a businessman. He had a daughter with college girlfriend Chrisann Brennan, but denied paternity for years. Even after he accepted Lisa Brennan as his daughter, he had almost as much trouble relating to her as he did relating to others in his life. Think of a derogatory term, anatomical or otherwise, that people apply to males they don't like, and Steve Jobs has been called it. Loyal to only a very few, no one was safe from Jobs' rudeness, often unreasonable demands or contempt when they disagreed with him. And let's not forget that, at Apple, he developed the Macintosh, which flopped. He got fired from Apple, founded NeXT Computer and developed the NeXT Box computer, which also flopped. Even geniuses make mistakes, but what recommends them as geniuses, in the 20/20 hindsight of history, are the final results and long-term impact of their accomplishments. Steve Jobs scores undeniably high marks in those areas.
The triumphs and tragedies, successes and failures, mistakes and mayhem in Steve Jobs' life, as described above, are all part of the film "Steve Jobs", but are encapsulated in a unique way. The movie takes place immediately before three crucial product launches staged in large auditoriums. The settings are the unveiling of the Macintosh in 1984, the NeXT Box in 1988 and the iMac in 1998. In each case, Jobs (played by Michael Fassbender), with his long-suffering PR manager, Joanna Hoffman (Kate Winslet), at his side, he interacts with Chrisann (Katherine Waterston) and their daughter, Lisa (played at five, ten and nineteen by Perla Haney-Jardine, Ripley Sobo, and Makenzie Moss) as well as his partner in founding Apple, Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen), Macintosh designer, Andy Hertzfeld (Michael Stuhlbarg) and Apple CEO, John Sculley (Jeff Daniels) plus others, through the various stages of warmth, apathy and conflict between them and Jobs at these specific moments in time. The movie gives us these three main scenes, adds a few brief flashback scenes to illustrate other important moments in Jobs' professional life, and that's basically the movie. If that doesn't sound interesting, it's most likely due to my lack of genius in communicating the true genius of Sorkin, Boyle and many others associated with this film.
"Steve Jobs" is a terrific cinematic experience. Although Sorkin's writing fabricates conversations for dramatic purposes, many of the people portrayed in the film have admitted that those conversations reflect events and feelings that were valid at those moments, and the script is vintage Sorkin. He has a particular genius for telling a story mainly through conversations which he manages to make dramatic, insightful and humorous – and this may be his best work ever. Boyle's direction, plus some creative and skillful editing, bring the script to life wonderfully and Boyle gets consistently remarkable work from his actors in roles large and small. The acting is of such high quality across the board, that it's very tough to single out just one or two actors for special praise amid a long list of award-worthy performances. A few moments in the film do feel like they're walking a line between believable and unrealistic, but those moments are few and far between. Like the real Steve Jobs' accomplishments, the accomplishment that is the film "Steve Jobs" isn't perfect, but at least in my MacBook, they both earn the label of genius. "A"