How long must a person be gone before they can become idolized? History has always elevated certain individuals to the rank of gods. They become part of folklore, defining figures of our collective culture. Steve Jobs may have only left us a few short years ago, yet it’s fair to say that the figurehead of Apple Computers has entered this reserved shelf of history. We tell tall tales about his methods (like when he drowned the first iPod prototype to emphasize there are still parts left to spare), compare all contemporaries to his style, and make movies like Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs is, predictably, a film that sets out to depict the globally famous CEO of Apple, chronicling some of his most tumultuous years. In the process, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network, HBO’s The Newsroom) presents a polarizing picture of the man beneath. Despite all this, calling Steve Jobs a biopic yields hesitation. Rather, this feels like a modern piece of mythology – a story that takes pieces of history and sculpts them into a three-act play about creation, legacy, and ambition.
Sorkin’s script is the star of this picture, with every other element seeking to enhance the framework.
The majority of the film is told from Jobs’ perspective in the final minutes before the unveiling of the Mac (in 1984), NeXT (1988), and iMac (1998). These three arcs are told in real-time, applying a looming pressure to the experience.
You can hear Sorkin having tremendous fun with structure as he tells the story of Jobs from these contained moments in time. Brief flashbacks augment the narrative, but are scarce. It’s a ceaselessly paced film, engaging from the first frame to the last.
MIchael Fassbender takes on the titular role and gives a striking take on a cultural icon in multiple stages of his career.
Like the script itself, Fassbender’s portrayal of Jobs is somewhere between reality and fantasy. He looks the part, bright with the approachable confidence that defined Jobs’ stage presence.
Yet he underlines this with a constant intensity and creates a version distinctly different from reality. Each peripheral character – like Apple employees Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen) and Andy Hertzfeld (Michael Stuhlbarg) or Jobs’ ex-girlfriend Chrisann (Katherine Waterston) and their daughter Lisa – makes appearences within these moments if only to shoehorn more about Jobs’ life into the scenes and distill more of the fascinating biography into the two-hour runtime.
Kate Winslet, in particular, nails the role of Joanna Hoffman, Apple’s director of marketing. Her character could so easily come off as hollow, but Winslet elevates each scene against Fassbender into a potent, irresistible dynamic.
Danny Boyle’s direction feels luxurious for such a claustrophobic drama, which acts as both a benefit and deficit. While most of the story takes place backstage at various theaters and opera houses, Boyle finds space for interesting visuals. That accomplishment is oddly undermined by moments of unnecessary alteration to the scenery.
As Jobs quotes a Bob Dylan song backstage, the lyrics appear against the wall in an unprompted moment of visual poetry. Similar tricks are pulled seemingly at random, and it’s little more than a distracting gimmick used without narrative consistency. But at its best, Jobs plays out like a Shakespearean drama set against early Silicon Valley – occasionally overwrought, but never bland.