Last week, I attended a screening of Steve Jobs that featured a Q&A with director Danny Boyle. The film stars Michael Fassbender (Macbeth, Shame) and Kate Winslet (Titanic, Revolutionary Road) and was written by Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network).
I must admit, when I first heard about this film coming out I was not interested in the slightest. Despite owning products by Apple, I’ve always found the strange worshiping of Steve Jobs as a god like figure very disconcerting and assumed that this film would treat him the same. I was most definitely wrong. The best part about this film is that it cuts through the mythology surrounding Steve Jobs to paint this portrait of a flawed man. The plot focuses on the relationship between Jobs and his daughter, who he originally denied paternity of. As she grows, she becomes the catalyst for his character development. I can’t fault the performances of Michael Fassbender as Jobs and Kate Winslet as marketing chief Joanna Hoffman, both played off each other brilliantly. At the Q&A with Danny Boyle, he mentioned that the real the heroines of the film are Winslet’s character and Jobs’ daughter Lisa and I completely agree. Jobs comes across as very unlikeable and is redeemed by the people around him.
Steve Jobs is split into three sections and set in 3 different times each at the launch of a new product, beginning with the original Macintosh and ending with the launch of the iMac. What’s interesting is that each section is filmed with a different camera, the first two acts on film (16mm and 35mm) and the third in digital. The film does feel a lot like a play, it is very dialogue driven without becoming boring and still maintains an interesting visual style without needing elaborate backdrops and settings.
Overall, this film was very entertaining and I really enjoyed it!
Emily Steele 