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This is the third movie I know of that features the life and career of Steve Jobs, and the second film based on the biography by Walter Isaacson. Directed by Danny Boyle and starring Michael Fassbender as Jobs, Kate Winslet as Jonna Hoffman and Seth Rogan as Wozniac and Jeff Daniels as John Scully. This is an incisive examination of the idiosyncratic Jobs’ ascension to techno-godhood. Taken as a whole the effect is similar to that achieved by J. C. Chandor’s Margin Call, or Chris Curtiss’s Too Big to Fail. Boyle’s long scenes of uninterrupted dialogue are fast paced, cinematographer Alwin H. Kuchler, Danny Boyle veteran from Sunshine days, shot the film with lots of handcams, closeups, low angles, key-hole shots, and Ken Burns effects. Editor Elliot Graham (X-men 2, Milk) cut the film tight, interspersing scenes and making use of a fusillade of takes per scene, adding to the film’s pacing, but also letting the star dialogue play-out unedited when needed. Heavyweight Aaron Sorkin of The Social Network, The West Wing, Moneyball and A Few Good Men wrote the screenplay, and dialogue is the movie’s strong-point, as writer Sorkin delivers his usual, forceful, adaptation of the source material: information dense but believable. Boyle doesn’t hesitate to intercut documentary footage, pictures of Napoleon, or flashbacks, giving the film a fluid feel, even though it’s really only about three scenes in length.

While the life and times of Steve Jobs has also been told in The Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999), and Jobs (2013), with Noah Wyle and Ashton Kutcher playing the yuppie billionaire, respectively, this is really the Steve Jobs hagiography we all wanted, with Fassbender’s Jobs part Bob Noyce and part Patrick Bateman. Fassbender captures the soul of the adopted overachieving super-yuppie technocrat right from the first scene.

The movie starts with black and white archival footage of Arthur Clarke explaining the future of the personal computer, and then leads into the 1984 Mac Expo. We’re rapidly introduced to Jobs’ domineering leadership style, his seemingly schizophrenic attention to technical detail, and his relationship with Andy Hertzfeld (Michael Stuhlbarg), Steve Wozniak (Rogen) and Joanna Hoffman (Winslet), Joel Pforzheimer (John Ortiz) as a publicist for Apple, and then to Jobs’ ex-wife, Chrisann (Katherine Waterston), and the first of many iterations of his estranged daughter Lisa, played variously by Ripley Sobo, Makenzie Moss, and finally by Perla Haney-Jardine. Soon Wozniak and Jobs are reminiscing about their time back in the garage developing the Apple II in 1977. These brief scenes highlight Job’s insistence on marketing an “end to end” product versus Wozniak’s desire to build an adaptable, modular, computer. Back at the Macintosh launch the Ridley Scott 1984 ad is played to introduce Jeff Daniels as Scully, former Pepsi-Cola marketer, CEO, and now the highest paid Chief Executive in Silicon Valley. Soon we learn of Jobs’ dismissal from Apple in 1985, and his subsequent pioneering period founding NeXT computers, including the Black Cube project, later developed into what eventually became the internet-box, better known as the iMac.

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The next major set-piece is the San Francisco Opera House in 1988. Kate Winslet, playing Jonna Hoffman (Apple and NeXT’s marketing director), as part Merly Streep and part Ayn Rand, does a weak accent but a good job of offsetting Fassbender with her presence; which neither Seth Rogen nor Jeff Daniels achieve, although both give it a sporting show; Rogen is the most convincing Wozniak I’ve seen put to screen, and Daniels plays a believable Scully, bringing real intensity to the role when required. Fassbender has some good scenes with a compellingly distraught Katherine Waterston (as Chrisann), but she doesn’t move around much on set, and disappears after this point. Jobs talks with Hertzfeld (Stuhlbarg) about the terrible failure that is the current NeXT OS, but Steve remains uninterested. These scenes generally reinforce Jobs’ titanic ego and unrelenting drive for control. By this point you’re an hour into the movie, and although it’s been dense, Boyle has somehow managed to show you only two actual scenes. Ripley Sobo as nine yearold Lisa has some good scenes with Fassbender, showing Jobs’ growing acquaintance with his highly intelligent daughter, although at a distance.

Scully and Jobs recount the decision to force his exit, again referencing Job’s insistence on total control over the creative and marketing process, regardless of what the engineer’s are actually doing. Scully calls Jobs out at the board room, “this guy is out of control” and offers to resign. Jobs lays out his vision for forcing Apple to buy his NeXT OS, hoping to secure 500 million dollars in the process. Nevertheless, the NeXT Cube isn’t ready for market, forcing the company to downsize, and Jobs to re-evaluate his strategy. Apple’s PDA “Newton” fails to gain traction and the company seems to be on the verge of ruin.

This is all setup for Job’s struggle with cancer (they skipped this), and his triumphant return to power. The movie cuts ahead to 1998, the San Francisco Symphony Hall is the next scene. This brings us through the Quadra, Performa and Power Macintosh years to the introduction of the Motorola G3 500 mhz processor and the origin of the iMac and OSX. The last 40 minutes are dedicated to the beginning of Apple’s Golden Age, Fassbender in wire-frame Oliver Peoples, sneakers, blue jeans and turtlenecks. Hoffman expresses her undying love of Steve Jobs while they’re working on the Think Different campaign, although she’s had it with his “reality distortion field.” Apple Chief Engineer Hertzfeld pays Lisa’s Harvard tuition and gets real with Steve, telling him to act like a father. All Steve can think about is that the G3 is twice as fast as the Pentium II. Wozniac shows up because he still wants Jobs to acknowledge the critical role the Apple II played in the company’s history, and they blow up, with the press and public listening. Woz is tired of Jobs’ patronizing. About 20 minutes left now. Scully shows up to give Jobs an packaged Newton. Jobs reveals that he was adopted twice, the first parents, lawyers, refused to accept him. The two titans of technology reminiscence about what could have been.

Perla Haney-Jardine is introduced as Harvard inductee, 19 year old Lisa with less than 15 minutes left. Lisa has now had enough with Jobs, they fight about Chrisann, but it’s too late, because Lisa knows that Jobs was actually a bastard douchebag all along. “I’m poorly made,” admits Fassbender. He promises to build Lisa an iPod, although one imagines she would have had a mini-disk player. Remember those?

The movie runs for almost exactly 2 hours. Danny Boyle’s team of producers, with long tentacles reaching to Alex Garland, Wes Anderson and Martin Scorsese, assembled a strong team and cast. Up-comer Daniel Pemberton, who recently transitioned from his decades of experience on TV movies to major film scores, produced the music. Pemberton gave the film, in some parts, a nice Shane Carruth feel: minimalist keyboard music, which he should have stuck to, because he falls flat with his period music choices, and his Steve Reich / Philip Glass bits are uninspired. He’s probably the weakest element in this film. Suttirat Anne Larlarb, Danny Boyle’s regular costume designer, did her usually masterful job, capturing the essence of 1980s nerd-yuppie-core fashion. Gene Serdena’s sets are well constructed, more like theater pieces than elaborate designs, reflecting his previous inspired work with Spike Jonze. Lots of reflecting glass, odd, futuristic lighting, and back-lit, monolithic, wall paneling.

The movie cost 30 million to make and only grossed 17 million in the US. What you’ve got here is a trifecta of films covering the rise of Steve Jobs to global computer icon and American Legend status. Pirates of Silicon Valley covers the early life of Jobs and Gates, ending in 1997 with Microsoft under scrutiny by the US Department of Justice for the Netscape anti-trust suit, Gates the wealthiest man on Earth. Jobs (2013) re-covers a lot of this terrain but goes into greater detail regarding the technical and design side of Apple’s development. Steve Jobs (2015) completes the trilogy, covering Jobs’ rise to global icon, but shies away from his death and legacy.