Steve Jobs (2015)

Directed by: Danny Boyle
Country: USA

Movie Review: In the last three years, three films were made about Steve Jobs, the genius behind the Apple technology, and each one of them deserves a very distinct verdict. In 2013, two years after Jobs’ death, director Joshua Michael Stern relies on Ashton Kutcher to play the character in “Jobs”, a feeble biopic that left the moviegoers unsatisfied with its contrived approach and lack of vision. This year, the acclaimed documentarian Alex Gibney (“Mea Maxima Culpa”, “We Steal Secrets”) has built a fair account of Jobs’ private and professional life using the typical journalistic approach in which well-edited interviews and archive footage are properly articulated. Now, it’s the turn of the respected director Danny Boyle (“Trainspotting”, “Slumdog Millionaire”, “127 Hours”) who formulates the most fascinating if incomplete portrait of the man in question. The inevitably awesome, Michael Fassbender, even drawing some initial doubts on Boyle’s first set, was the perfect vehicle to give body and soul to Jobs, here aided by Kate Winslet, who gives a magnificent performance – her best since “Revolutionary Road” - playing Joanna Hoffman, Job’s trustful ally and confidant since the times of the original Mac team. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, who based himself in the book by Walter Isaacson, leaves some important details out of the script such as Job’s wife and the illness that consumed him for quite some time. However, with the help of Mr. Boyle’s expressive close-ups and thorough guidance, “Steve Jobs” turns out to be an extremely entertaining fragment with emotional efficaciousness in regard to how the tech maestro brusquely handled family and work matters. The Apple’s catching slogan ‘think different’ was not always transposed to his private life, especially in those difficult times when he stubbornly refused to recognize his 5-year-old daughter, Lisa. The man who feared rejection due to a convoluted childhood was able to slowly change in several aspects of his life, but will always be regarded as a selfish bastard by some of the tech creators who also put a lot of effort in the variety of tasks without receiving the recognition they deserved. Among the extensive list, we have John Sculley, Steve Wozniak, and Andy Hertzfeld, terrifically played by Jeff Daniels, Seth Rogen, and Michael Stuhlbarg, respectively.