Post by Ripley on Oct 5, 2015 12:35:54 GMT -5
"...We begin in 1984 when Steve (Michael Fassbender) prepares to debut the MacIntosh computer in Cupertino, California. (Boyle shoots this on a grainy home video-like camera, giving it a nifty aged look.) About 40 minutes before go-time, he’s panicked because the screen on display can’t “say hello” to the shareholders. In short order, his VIPs step into the picture. He strategizes with his trusty marketing head Joanna Hoffman (Kate Winslet); orders his chief engineer Andy Hertzfeld (Michael Stuhlbarg) to fix the glitch; bitterly feuds with his ex-girlfriend Chrisann Brennan (Katherine Waterston) over the paternity of her 5-year-old daughter, Lisa; bristles with “Woz” (Seth Rogen) about whether he should thank the Apple II team in his speech; and clinks glasses with his CEO John Sculley (Jeff Daniels).
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...This unusual and admittedly confining structure is bound to polarize. Indeed, it can be jarring to absorb decades’ worth of information — including the apparently messy breakup from Brennan — in high-speed dialogue snips. It’s up to you to deduct how the two Steves went from the garage to the Cupertino auditorium in the 1980s and how Lisa’s relationship with her father developed in the 1990s. Sorkin might also come under fire for taking obvious artistic liberties in the script. Though based on Walter Isaacson’s bestselling (and cooperative) memoir of the same name, the film plays loose with many of its anecdotal details. That book never described how Jobs hinted about the iPod to Lisa in a parking lot. Heck, Hoffman was retired by 1998, and she’s a key player in Act 3.
...he brainy film could just use more heart. It’s clear that Jobs is gifted at making groundbreaking things even though he is himself poorly made. Nonetheless, the unlikeable factor rates high. He perpetually comes off as an arrogant SOB unapologetic about his disdain for human connection. By the time he realizes that personal relationships are vital, the payoff is slight. Even if there’s truth to this characterization, it doesn’t explain why Hoffman would be so loyal. Or why Lisa would want to live with him. Or why he’d inspire his Apple underlings to greatness.
review of Steve Jobs