First 'Steve Jobs' review calls film 'must-see,' hails Michael Fassbender's 'enthralling' performanc

Posted:
in General Discussion edited September 2015
Writer Aaron Sorkin's forthcoming "Steve Jobs" biopic screened at the Telluride Film Festival this weekend, and the first review has emerged with considerable praise, calling the movie an unconventionally constructed, "brilliant" piece of filmmaking.




Variety's Chief Film Critic Justin Chang lauded the film as a "must-see" for a number of reasons, including an unconventional storytelling structure, as well as "an enthralling performance" by lead actor Michael Fassbender, who takes on the title role of the Apple co-founder.

"This is a film of brash, swaggering artifice and monumental ego, a terrific actors' showcase and an incorrigibly entertaining ride," Chang wrote.

The critic noted that screenwriter Sorkin's take on Jobs, based on the book by Walter Isaacson, is not "the most comprehensive account possible," going as far as to say some of the dramatic creations are "outrageous." But much like Sorkin's Oscar winning film about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, the film takes creative liberties to portray Jobs as those around him saw him.

In the words of Chang, the film presents Jobs as "both an iconic visionary and a monster with a silicon chip where his heart should be."

Directed by Oscar winner Danny Boyle, best known for "Slumdog Millionaire," the film also stars Seth Rogen as Steve Wozniak, Jeff Daniels as John Sculley, and Kate Winslet as former Mac marketing head Joanna Hoffman.

The film will also screen at the New York Film Festival on Oct. 3, where it will have the distinction of holding the prestigious "Centerpiece" slot. It will then open to the general public on Oct. 9.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 48
    It actually looks pretty damn good. Excited to see Fassbender's take on Jobs
  • Reply 2 of 48

    I'd rather skip it.



    From John Gruber at DaringFireball.net:



    JONATHAN KIM ON ALEX GIBNEY’S ‘STEVE JOBS: THE MAN IN THE MACHINE’



    Jonathan Kim calls it “an Apple-hater’s manifesto”



    Sounds like the film equivalent of Yukari Iwatani Kane’s book Haunted Empire — an attempt to fit the facts to a preconceived narrative, rather than craft a narrative from the actual facts.

     

  • Reply 3 of 48
    jameskatt2 wrote: »
    I'd rather skip it.


    From John Gruber at DaringFireball.net:


    JONATHAN KIM ON ALEX GIBNEY’S ‘STEVE JOBS: THE MAN IN THE MACHINE’


    Jonathan Kim calls it “an Apple-hater’s manifesto”


    Sounds like the film equivalent of Yukari Iwatani Kane’s book Haunted Empire — an attempt to fit the facts to a preconceived narrative, rather than craft a narrative from the actual facts.

     


    That's a helpful link...

    Except for the part where that is a completely different movie...
  • Reply 4 of 48
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by jameskatt2 View Post

     

    I'd rather skip it.



    From John Gruber at DaringFireball.net:



    JONATHAN KIM ON ALEX GIBNEY’S ‘STEVE JOBS: THE MAN IN THE MACHINE’



    Jonathan Kim calls it “an Apple-hater’s manifesto”



    Sounds like the film equivalent of Yukari Iwatani Kane’s book Haunted Empire — an attempt to fit the facts to a preconceived narrative, rather than craft a narrative from the actual facts.

     




    "The Man in the Machine" is a documentary, and a completely different film, that you can watch on demand right now. The film this story is about, "Steve Jobs," is a scripted biopic that has not yet hit theaters.

  • Reply 6 of 48
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by jameskatt2 View Post

     

    I'd rather skip it.



    From John Gruber at DaringFireball.net:



    JONATHAN KIM ON ALEX GIBNEY’S ‘STEVE JOBS: THE MAN IN THE MACHINE’



    Jonathan Kim calls it “an Apple-hater’s manifesto”



    Sounds like the film equivalent of Yukari Iwatani Kane’s book Haunted Empire — an attempt to fit the facts to a preconceived narrative, rather than craft a narrative from the actual facts.

     


    You are talking about a different movie.

     

    Don't skip Gibney's documentary though. Whether you like it or not it is still worth watching.

  • Reply 7 of 48
  • Reply 8 of 48
    I'm going to assume it's told non-linearly, and hops back and forth across Steve's time line. That's all the rage nowadays.
  • Reply 9 of 48
    As I've said all along, I had little doubt that Fassbender would hit it out of the park (or for our Brit friends, for a sixer).

    Can't wait to see it.
  • Reply 10 of 48
    Bullsh*t.
  • Reply 11 of 48
    bdkennedy1 wrote: »
    Bullsh*t.

    Say what?

    Sudden bout of Tourret's?
  • Reply 12 of 48
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post



    I'm going to assume it's told non-linearly, and hops back and forth across Steve's time line. That's all the rage nowadays.



    Linear narrative is so bourgeois

  • Reply 13 of 48



    So, Woz says that he actually confronted Steve and demanded to know "what do you do"? :rolleyes:

  • Reply 14 of 48
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rtamesis View Post



    Here's another glowing review.



    http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie/steve-jobs/review/820561



    Glowing, alright... :\  

     

    "Danny Boyle's... direction tempermentally complements Sorkin’s highly theatrical three-act study, which might one day be fascinating to experience in a staged setting."


     

    I've no interest in seeing a stagey melodrama of a fictitious Jobs.

     

    And the "review" continues:



    "While the presence of Jobs’ ex and child at a moment like this seems pretty unrealistic, even forced, Sorkin’s dramatic strategy becomes clear: He’s using compressed moment of career intensity to spotlight diverse elements of his subject’s nature—overweening ambition, massive self-confidence, ultra-demanding posture, lack of compassion and overriding egomania—for the purposes of illuminating his genius as well as his paranoia about others."


     

    Feh! It's the same old motormouth characters thrown into a pressure cooker. Gave up on Sorkin when his TV news drama came out. Fifteen minutes of that drivel and I never looked back.

  • Reply 15 of 48
    asdasdasdasd Posts: 5,686member
    I'm going to assume it's told non-linearly, and hops back and forth across Steve's time line. That's all the rage nowadays.

    It's centred around the release of the Mac, the Cube and the iMac according to reviews.

    I'd prefer the last scene was the iPhone.
  • Reply 16 of 48
    asdasdasdasd Posts: 5,686member

    So, Woz says that he actually confronted Steve and demanded to know "what do you do"? :rolleyes:

    Woz probsbly realises that the script is loosely based on real life, but not exactly word for word
  • Reply 17 of 48
    I'm going to assume it's told non-linearly, and hops back and forth across Steve's time line. That's all the rage nowadays.

    From what I've seen it takes place before 3 different unveilings.
  • Reply 18 of 48
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post

     

    I've no interest in seeing a stagey melodrama of a fictitious Jobs.


    I bet you still watch it.

     

    I think just about anyone who likes Apple or Fassbender or Sorkin will watch it, just because.

     

    It's going to be hard to resist seeing it in my opinion.

  • Reply 19 of 48
    It's going to take a lot of imagination from me to visually replace SJ with MF!

    I could see Ashton Kutcher, Justin Long & Noah Wyle as Jobs... But Fassbender??? I don't know.

    And Seth Rogan... I would be totally insulted if I was Woz! He's an idiot (which he plays very well) and is nothing like Woz!
  • Reply 20 of 48
    Honestly. I don't care for this. I don't care that this actor or director is well liked online or whatever. To me these films are the same mash of all the rest, and I'm tired of it. If the film is not an authorized works, its just another hack film using the subject matter to gain dollars.
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