Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Steve Jobs (2015)

This is topic Steve Jobs (2015) in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=002158

Posted by Mark Ogden (Member # 43) on 10-18-2015, 09:14 PM:

The life and personal relationships of the Apple co-founder are examined at the time of three product launches, with special focus on his coming to terms with the daughter he had by his first girlfriend. At the Regal Union Square Theaters, New York City.

*****

The makers of this dialogue-heavy picture have tacitly admitted that the movie should not be taken as a verbatim biography, but rather as an illustration of what Jobs was like as a person around the time of the original Macintosh launch, the launch of the NeXT computer (a device which, if the film is to be believed, was for all intents and purposes a deliberate fraud by Jobs) and that of the first iMac, a computer which, in the film’s funniest line, is described by Job’s all-but-estranged daughter Lisa as looking “like Judy Jetson’s Easy Bake Oven”. If the “illustration” is accurate, then Jobs really sucked at being a human. He disowned at first the daughter who was clearly his, painted her mother a whore, stole the credit for the 1984 Macintosh, refused to acknowledge the team behind the successful Apple II and generally drove away the people around him, save one: Joanna Hoffman, who was the head of Marketing for both Apple and NeXT and by some accounts his moral compass and true confidant, and by all accounts the only person who could stand up to him. She is played in the film by Kate Winslet, who is terrific, as are all the other performers. The picture is nicely directed, edited and designed too, and if you enjoy the screenwriting and teleplays of Arron Sorkin, you’ll enjoy this one as well.

I’m writing this on an iMac, and many of you will read it on either an Apple device or one based on, ripped-off from, or built in response to an Apple device. Say what you will about the man, but one way or another he led a revolution in technology. Whether that gives him a pass for the enormities of his personal life (and whether or not he deserves three film biographies in two years, two of which are in theaters right now) will be up to you, but this is a good movie to start making up an open mind with.

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 10-25-2015, 06:37 PM:

CINEMA: AMC Council Bluffs 17, Council Bluffs, IA
AUDITORIUM: 6
PRESENTATION: AMC Recline-O-Vision Digital
PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: None [Cool]

RATING: Three stars (out of four)

THE PLOT: Exactly thirty minutes before every major Steve Jobs event, wackiness apparently ensues.

This is an interesting exercise in storytelling to be sure. It's basically a three-act play on the screen. If you wanted to tell Jobs' story as a Broadway play, this is the way to do it.

It's certainly not the complete story, and it has an unbelieveably cheesy moment at the end hinting towards the iPod, but it's a pretty great watch.

In case Mark is keeping track, I wrote this on my iPad. [Smile]

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 10-26-2015, 08:49 AM:

quote: Mark Ogden
I’m writing this on an iMac, and many of you will read it on either an Apple device or one based on, ripped-off from, or built in response to an Apple device.

I thought it all the ripping off led back to Xerox PARC in the 1970's.
[Razz]

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 10-26-2015, 11:45 PM:

And that was ripped off by the person or persons who invented graphics.

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 10-28-2015, 08:41 AM:

I thought technically and acting was very good, but ugh.. the story was soooooo booooorrrring. The dialogue felt so stilted - Sorkin's worst script