3.5 stars (out of 5)
Although there was a passable Steve Jobs (1955 – 2011) biopic in 2013 simply called Jobs (and starring everyone-loves-to-hate-him Ashton Kutcher), this tougher, spikier, more unusual study of the guy will be the one remembered due to the heavyweight triple-act of director Danny Boyle, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and star Michael Fassbender, none of whom cut corners in making Steve look, ahem, difficult. Indeed, compared to Jobs, which portrayed Steve as flawed and driven but visionary and amiable, Boyle/Sorkin/Fassbender’s take paints him as more than a bit of a bastard.
Drawn from Walter Isaacson’s book, the structure isn’t typically Hollywood as we observe Apple co-founder Steve in three acts (set in 1984, 1988 and 1998) as he prepares for the launch of key products (in order: the Apple Macinstosh, the NeXT computer and the iMac G3). Long-suffering marketing exec Joanna Hoffman (Kate Winslet) is always there, and she’s the one who, during the nerve-wracking backstage events in 1984, introduces Chrisann Brennan (Katherine Waterston), mother of 5 year old Lisa, the daughter he refuses to acknowledge is his despite the ruling of a judge (Steve used some ludicrous personal algorithm to calculate the chance that he’s the Dad – and he’s always right, of course).
Steve also offends Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen), who has a bigger role in what goes on in 1988 as Chrisann returns with the growing-up Lisa and Apple CEO John Sculley (Jeff Daniels from Sorkin’s The Newsroom) appears again, prompting both flashbacks and a little discussion about Steve’s past and why he’s the way he is. And then it’s 1998 and more corporate skullduggery has taken place but now that Lisa is finishing school, much of the action surrounds Steve’s treatment of her over the years, and Perla Haney-Jardine plays her so powerfully that she almost upstages Fassbender.
Featuring fine performances from the whole cast (including Adelaide’s Sarah Snook in a few scenes), as they make Sorkin’s sometimes-tricky dialogue sound real, Boyle’s film makes you wonder how Steve’s friends and colleagues would feel about how impossible and appalling he’s made to appear here (and see also Sorkin’s script for The Social Network, which depicts Mark Zuckerberg as an arsehole too). Or would those who actually knew the real Steve applaud and praise it for daring to suggest that Steve Jobs was a complete scumbag?
I Wake Up Screening 