Steve Jobs

This review may contain spoilers!

This is one of the most incredible biopics that I've seen of an individual in a while. I would give Steve Jobs an 8/10.

While I had some issues with the structure of this film's plot I really enjoyed that I was so engaged by this retelling of Steve Jobs' life, this film was really well paced and came across as being similar to that of a grand opera in how it played out. This film was witty and insightful, I cannot stress how intelligent the dialogue of this film is. The exploration of Steve Jobs as a character was really well written, you see every facet of how he is as a person as well as the relationships he shares with other characters in this film. The cinematography is so encapsulating for a film that is mainly dialogue scenes, you feel like the film is constantly in motion even when two characters are standing sharing a conversation for several minutes. The score for this film isn't used to a great degree but when it is it really brings out the mood of the scenes, the rising conflicts and underlying tensions are only strengthened by the music that accompanies.

Kate Winslet, who played Joanna Hoffman, was the perfect person to play against and reign in Fassbender in this film; I loved seeing her break and lash out verbally in what was a very emotional scene between her and Fassbender. Seth Rogen, who played Steve Wozniak, was very calm and easy-spoken in this film; Rogen played a very grounded character and gave one of the most convincing performances of the film. Jeff Daniels, who played John Sculley, had so much emotional range in this film; he was a powerhouse and any scene with him and Fassbender together was going to be one of the best scenes of the film. Katherine Waterston, who played Chrisann Brennan, gave a performance that really highlighted her role's anger and outrage towards Jobs; I think she brought something intricate to what could have been a throw away character. Perla Haney-Jardine, who played Lisa Brennan (19), gave such a great closing performance alongside Fassbender; I was so impressed with the great relationship we saw between the two of them by the end of the film. Ripley Sobo, who played Lisa Brennan (9), created a lot of the great chemistry between this role and Fassbender; I think it was pretty powerful to see a child actor play up the aspect of being afraid of a parent. Makenzie Moss, who played Lisa Brennan (5), really did a great job kindling the relationship between her role and Fassbender; there was something really powerful about the scene between her and Fassbender using the Mackintosh.

However the best performance came from Michael Fassbender, who played Steve Jobs. Fassbender was phenomenal in this role and it's possibly my favourite performance by him to date. He shares a great chemistry with most all of the cast, even if it's a sort of hostile exchange throughout. I really enjoyed seeing Jobs grow as a character through Fassbender, he begins as very brash and short tempered but becomes a lot more rational and understanding as the film progresses. The exploration of Jobs' ever-evolving relationship with his daughter, Lisa, is explored throughout the film and made all the better through Fassbender's touching exchanges with the three actresses who portray her.

The structure of the film and how it jumps through flashbacks and flashforwards can get rather convoluted, I felt the plot would just dump the audience into an unfamiliar setting rather suddenly and if it weren't for the great writing and character interaction this could have posed to be a major narrative issue of the film. The editing for this movie is a bit jarring at times, cuts can be very irregular or happen swiftly and suddenly all at once.

Michael Stuhlbarg, who played Andy Hertzfeld, was a character who was clearly meant to have a degree of significance to Jobs; however due to Stuhlbarg's dismal onscreen presence you never really felt this in the film. Sarah Snook, who played Andrea Cunningham, was a very forgettable role; you feel like she was only in this film because of her connections with Winslet. John Ortiz, who played Joel Pforzheimer, took a long time to really be worked into the film; he felt like an unnecessary sidebar to the story. Adam Shapiro, who played Avie Tevanian, had absolutely no screen presence in this film; frankly Shapiro was playing a role who could have been important but wasn't treated as such in this film.