"Steve Jobs" (2015)

What is genius?

It’s hard to pinpoint the decade to which Steve Jobs had foresight of the universe. But if you think about how you decide the effects of human behavior, the rest of us are just attempting to catch up with Steve Jobs. Though fortunate not to have to skate that mental line.

Aside from the technology that permeates our society today, it’s near impossible to see this world that doesn’t have an Apple product. In fact, I’m typing from my MacBook Pro. One of the last models conceived by Jobs before his death.

The idea of someone so intelligent, they cease to function speaking and dealing with the public to a level common sense understanding. The most frustrating of it all is attempting to float in the wake of it. What exactly was Jobs’s gift? I believe this movie argues that it was to see the potential. Not an engineer or a designer, what he lapped up was…um…style. P.T. Barnum knew it. The product and culture was half the battle. What separates this movie from the other Jobs projects, I think, is that Michael Fassbender (who plays Steve Jobs) gets the calculated, somewhat humorous, otherwise cruel mystery man behind the technology that did essentially change a part of the world. Andy Warhol’s Factory was similar. Artists in residency would craft the work, Warhol would sign off on it. If you’re the artist, this could prove to be frustrating…as was the case for Steve Wozniak (an amazingly reserved Seth Rogen)…the designer of the Apple II that was the basis of Mac’s greatest successes. Jobs is unable (or stubbornly denies) to accept how great a contribution Woz’s designs were. Though I got the sense that most Mac cultist would credit him over Jobs. The question being without Jobs would any of this be possible? Who knows. They do acknowledge the chain does go up. For instance, having John Sculley be the C.E.O. (Jeff Daniels). A marketing head honcho recruited from PepsiCo to head Apple. He is the business face of Jobs’s wild free-spirit ways. Which is the impression, but not the man. Sculley is the “suit” that hounds Jobs recklessness. Unable to see the method through the madness, he is a traditional “company man” whose relationship with Jobs takes on a larger role, once we realize Jobs’s past.

I often think about these things, since sometimes talent is discovering what is added to what to get something good. In this case, Jobs is compared to the conductor of an orchestra. He seems perfectly happy in the role of shuffling engineers, software developers to blend a clean machine. Though, what gets lost in the shuffle, is his interaction with people. In particular, his long time marketing partner Joanna Hoffman played BRILLANTLY by Kate Winslet. The drama is played to the extent to which Joanna finally lays it out in plain English, Jobs lacks humanity BUT knows what humans want. The massive flaw in his design. Which is again illustrated in two decades dodging a daughter that only wants to know more about her father.

I love this movie. Expertly directed by Danny Boyle from a script by Aaron Sorkin, this movie, for all the dry info, moves. Those who’ve complained about it being a filmed play…go fuck yourself. This was as visually stunning as any landscape in “The Revenant” (piece of shit). And the drama is more palatable without bear rape. This movie’s greatest accomplishment is that after all the oddball t.v. movies and straight-to-video release, this one had the acting chops and idiosyncrasies to make it fascinating. Moves like a rock concert, and a shame it didn’t win Best Picture. Though I have no doubt, a movie about child molestation in the Catholic church is far more important than a man who has social interaction issues.

Watch this movie if you can.