“ Musicians play their instruments. I play the orchestra” If you are like me, then last twenty years have been a blur when it comes to technology. Not in the sense that I can’t let go of my flip-phone and still adore my dial-up service, but in way that it seems like yesterday a beeper was the thing to have. We now carry our home computers in our pockets, because of great people who have made these inventions, but there is one company that seems to gather more affection for it’s products than most, because it’s feels like a way of life. In the last twenty years very few companies have had an effect on everyday life like Apple, which was lead by Steve Jobs.
When you think of Jobs, you think of that man in the black turtleneck introducing the next must have product in your life. There of course was more to him than that, and while there have been films that tried to tell his story (I am looking at you “Jobs”), like every story it just needed the right players to bring it to true life. We pick up the “Steve Jobs” story with the unveiling of the Macintosh Computer in 1984, or as you remember it, the product that was never shown in that amazing commercial during that year’s Super bowl. Jobs (Michael Fassbender) sees this as the next great thing, but built it in a way that didn’t fit what consumers were clamoring for. Jobs tries to convince everyone of his vision, which rubs most people the wrong way, all who can’t seem to really stand him, well except one. That one would be his assistant Joanna Hoffman (Kate Winslet), who seems to be the only one who can bring Jobs back to reality. Jobs seems to be at odds with everyone else though, from Co-Founder Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen), to one of his lead programmers Andy Hertzfeld (Michael Stuhlbarg), all the way to his C.E.O. John Sculley (Jeff Daniels), the later even being a father figured to Jobs.
The film follows Jobs on three iconic products launches, giving us a peek behind the curtain of the man who brought us some incredible advancements in his field. As mentioned before when put in the right hands even great stories can become epic. In the case of “Steve Jobs” those hands are the writing of Aaron Sorkin, the direction of Danny Boyle, and the portrayal of Jobs by Michael Fassbender. Sorkin, who is a man who loves words and great dialogue takes us on a whirlwind of verbal sparring as he unleashes monologues that seem to only get better with each frame. Like most things said, it depends on the delivery, and Fassbender is the perfect vessel for Sorkin’s writing. Almost every conversation between Fassbender and Winslet or he and Daniels are a workshop, with one particular exchange that left me breathless. It all comes to together with Danny Boyle’s direction, which really seems to be on point for the second and third acts of the film. “Steve Jobs” is a look into a man’s life that so many of us seem to know so little about. It shows the complexity of a man whose genius would help change so many people’s lives. This film is a pleasure for your ears, eyes, and your mind, and one of the better films you will see all year.