Thrilling from beginning to end

Rating: 9/10 (14 December 2015)

I missed the previous Steve Jobs film featuring Ashton Kutcher, but somehow I'm getting the feeling I didn't miss much. When another Jobs film was announced with a script by Aaron Sorkin, my interest was piqued. Apparently, Sorkin's going through a phase where he likes innovative assholes; first with Zuckerberg and now with Jobs. But hey, The Social Network turned out pretty great, so of course I looked forward to Steve Jobs. And despite the fact I know very little about Steve Jobs, the resulting film is very impressive, as in the experience alone leaves a lasting impression.
Just like Sorkin said he would early in production, the film's divided into three parts: each one taking place right before one of Jobs's iconic presentations. It's in these half hours where Jobs isn't just trying to get every single detail of his presentations right, but where he finds himself confronted by colleagues, his ex and the girl who's most likely (as in 94.1%) his daughter. His ex--and Jobs's marketing executive Joanna Hoffman--agree that he should take parental responsibility, but Steve won't have any of it, besides agreeing to make some money available to his ex. In terms of colleagues, the most important are CEO John Sculley, engineer and programmer Steve Wozniak and computer scientist Andy Hertzfeld, all crucial to Apple's success. Over the course of these three radically differing time periods, we find them interacting and profoundly influencing each other's lives.
Sorkin's script is the key to this film's success by far. I know very little about Apple and Steve Jobs, so the learning curve was daunting to me. This made things particularly confusing during an intense argument between Jobs and Sculley which is crosscut with another argument between the two from many years ago. Information overload! Information overload! But even so, it was riveting to see a film made of 100% talking be so exciting from beginning to end. This film goes from argument to argument and never lets up. The fact that there's deadlines just around the corner adds to the constant sense of urgency. Sorkin also adds cute little details, like using computational terms to describe human behavior as seen when Wozniak tells Jobs he can be a genius and decent at the same time; it doesn't have to be binary.
Director Danny Boyle's primary task was to bring Sorkin's script to life. If the director was someone like, say, George Lucas, we'd be getting shot, reverse-shots constantly to 'enhance' the drama. But Boyle's got a grasp, knows how to keep things moving. He gets a few opportunities to inject some exciting visuals into the proceedings, but ultimately his task is to enhance the conversations. The characters might be walking through halls to meet someone while also discussing things amongst themselves. When two characters are talking in a room, Boyle uses changing camera angles and has the actors move around occasionally to make things dynamic. Sometimes this is used to great effect: after Wozniak scolds Jobs for being a nasty person and walks away, the screen behind Jobs says 'Think different'.
And let's not forget Fassbender who brings out multiple facets of Jobs's personality. Again, I have never seen any footage of Jobs, so I couldn't comment on whether he gets all the mannerisms right., but what I do know is that the performance is stellar. The same goes for Jeff Daniels (Sculley) who seems to have become the go-to guy for bosses (see also The Martian). Michael Stuhlbarg as Hertzfeld and Seth Rogen as Wozniak also convey a sense of having known Jobs for years, but never really having shed the uncomfortableness when being around him. Last but not least, there's Kate Winslet as Joanna who seems to be the only one who really knows Jobs and is easily capable of standing up to him.
I can't judge the film's historical accuracy, but I do know it's absolutely thrilling. A sense of disappointment washed over me as I realized things were wrapping up. I wanted to see more, more of these characters talking, discussing technology, arguing amongst each other. It's an experience more than anything and one of those films I wanted to see a second time and I rarely get that feeling after going to the movies.