“Danny Boyle and Aaron Sorkin’s Steve Jobs is a lightning bolt of pure cinematic energy,” Scott Mendelson writes for Forbes. “Yes, it’s Aaron Sorkin doing Aaron Sorkin to the point of near self-parody, but the cocktail works. Filled with superb performances and lively exchanges with the hindsight of history in a bottle, Steve Jobs is genuinely electrifying entertainment that never lets up. It contains not one explosion, not one moment of violence, nor a hint of sexual content or overtly scandalous content. And yet it is riveting and breathlessly exciting from beginning to end.”
“The goal is not blow-by-blow history but rather, like Selma or Lincoln, an approximation of the man through a particular time in his life,” Mendelson writes. “Through the course of the unconventional three-act structure, we get not so much an overreaching portrait of Mr. Jobs (Michael Fassbender) but something of an abstract painting. It can be argued that the would-be contradictions and complications of the man can be boiled down to Aspergers-type traits.”
“But considering that no one should be taking this picture for exact science or pure factual biography, it works on its terms… since I don’t have any skin in the game (and I’m not remotely an expert on the man or the era) I can take the film, I can accept this interpretation for what it is,” Mendelson writes. “Would-be deeper meanings aside, the film is a cinematic triumph of writing, editing, and acting. Everyone is on top of their game here, and everyone is flat-out terrific… This is an actors’ treat wrapped inside a writer’s dream trapped inside a deliciously directed (almost perfectly squared) black box… The parts that make up the sum of Steve Jobs are terrific, and the picture is one of the most entertaining movies of the year. A computer may or may not be a painting, but Steve Jobs is a dynamite work of abstract art.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We’ll have the exact opposite problem as Mendelson. Every bit of dramatic license taken will likely seem an offense to us. We’ll try hard, though, to experience it as a film, not a documentary.
SEE ALSO:
Steve Jobs’ daughter Lisa skips movie screening, but parties with cast – October 7, 2015
Philip Elmer-DeWitt reviews ‘Steve Jobs’ movie: ‘I loved it’ – October 7, 2015
Aaron Sorkin: Steve Jobs just wanted to be loved – October 6, 2015
The ‘Steve Jobs’ movie that Sony, DiCaprio, and Bale didn’t want is now an Oscar favorite – October 6, 2015
Michael Fassbender already the odds-on favorite to win an Oscar for ‘Steve Jobs’ – October 5, 2015
Steve Jobs’ widow and friends take aim at Hollywood over ‘Steve Jobs’ biopic – October 5, 2015
‘Steve Jobs’ biopic too nasty to win Best Picture award – October 2, 2015
Andy Hertzfeld: ‘Steve Jobs’ movie ‘deviates from reality everywhere’ but ‘aspires to explore and expose the deeper truths’ – October 2, 2015
Aaron Sorkin blasts Apple’s Tim Cook over ‘Steve Jobs’ critique: ‘You’ve got a lot of nerve’ – September 25, 2015
Kate Winslet on ‘Steve Jobs’ biopic: ‘Sorkin makes it almost not about Steve Jobs at all’ – August 26, 2015
Watch Michael Fassbender as Steve Jobs in new official trailer – July 1, 2015
See Michael Fassbender as ‘Steve Jobs’ in first movie trailer – May 18, 2015
Universal Pictures announces full cast of ‘Steve Jobs’ as biopic begins shooting – January 28, 2015
Filming for Steve Jobs biopic underway at Apple co-founder’s childhood home – January 17, 2015
Perla Haney-Jardine to play Lisa Jobs in Universal’s ‘Steve Jobs’ biopic – January 6, 2015
Kate Winslet eyed for female lead in ‘Steve Jobs’ biopic – December 22, 2014
Jeff Daniels eyed to play former Apple CEO John Sculley in ‘Steve Jobs’ biopic – December 9, 2014
Really? Every single MDN Take regarding this movie has been so exaggerated. It’s a movie; 99% of movies take “creative license” for entertainment purposes. An earlier Take from 5 days ago stated that MDN was “dreading” the release of the film. Riiiiiight. Tone it down.
Those MacDailyNews Takes are not mutually exclusive.
But as MDN says above, the people on this site know the story. We know the scenes, we know the quotes.
It will be hard to watch the “abstract painting” when it colours so far outside of the lines we all know are there.
For a kid who’s just bought his first iPad? Sure. This might be a great film.
For me? I’m reserving judgement until I’ve seen the film, but I’m worried based on what we’ve already seen & heard.
MDN, get off your high horse please
WTF are you blathering on about now? I see no “high horse” in MDN’s Take.
I would like to apologize for MDN… for expressing their opinion and for not matching yours. Shocking!
Disney made Thomas Edison into a hero even though Edison tried to get Congress to outlaw AC current and also used to electrocute small (and even huge) animals outside of his businesses to ‘prove’ that AC was ‘dangerous’ and DC was not.
He ran electric current through over a thousand different materials to try to find a filament that wouldn’t burn out in a few minutes until he read that an Englishman used a vacuum glass enclosure to keep the oxygen out. His copied solution worked (like Samsung) and then he hired dozens of engineers to create the rest of ‘his inventions’.
This Danny Boyle/ Aaron Sorkin hit piece tries to vilify a great man who changed the world by merely striving for excellence.
I don’t know about “vilify”.
By the official record Jobs was a hurtful jerk who didn’t care about the people around him. And then he started growing up. And eventually he became the creative, technology, management and business genius we all think we know and love.
He just happened to be on a world stage while he was an unmitigated jerk, and did his growing up in relative obscurity.