The initial run of reviews for Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs film are out… and unanimously filled with praise for the performance of lead actor Michael Fassbender.
Fassbender plays the Apple CEO in the eponymous movie, which was directed by Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, Trainspotting) and written for the screen by Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network).
Due for general release on October 9, Steve Jobs is based around the launch of three Apple products: The Macintosh in 1984, the NeXT “Cube” in 1988 and the iMac in 1998.
Time Out gives the film four stars out of five, calling it “a lot like Steve Jobs the person: astonishingly brilliant whenever it’s not breaking your heart”.
The publication says that the first of the film’s three sections – the story of Jobs’ preparation for the launch of the first Macintosh computer – is the “most flawlessly scripted slice” of the production.
Time Out is heavy on praise for Fassbender’s “miraculous performance”, lauding his ability to “sprint along the pencil-thin line between the genius the world got to know and the sociopath we would hear about in whispers”.
However, it sticks the knife a little into Boyle’s directing, and his tendency to give audiences a happy ending.
David Erlich writes” “After nearly two hours of keeping his worst impulses at bay (prepare to roll your eyes as the image stutters like a computer screen about to freeze), Boyle’s shoot-for-the-moon instincts seize on the one maudlin note of Sorkin’s script and drive home the final minutes with a wallop of well-meaning schmaltz that reeks of candied bullshit.”
The Hollywood Reporter is kinder to Boyle. It writes: “Danny Boyle’s electric direction tempermentally complements Sorkin’s highly theatrical three-act study, which might one day be fascinating to experience in a staged setting.”
It adds that the “actors are uniformly superb”, reserving special plaudits for Fassbender, of whom it says:
“Along with intellectual brilliance and force of personality, the actor also taps into the man’s frequently unreachability, power to inspire, unswerving faith in his own instincts, attention to the smallest detail, utter lack of sentimentality and the certitude that can come from occupying a different, loftier realm.
“Most of all, you get the strong sense from Fassbender of a mind that is always several steps beyond everyone else’s, one that allows him to shift gears without taking a breath.”
Justin Chang at Variety is equally wowed by Fassbenders’ performance, commenting: “Fassbender overcomes the obvious casting hurdle (he looks nothing like Jobs, whose Arab-American lineage is briefly referenced) and delivers a performance as enthralling and fully sustained as any on his estimable resume.
“That the actor is onscreen at every minute makes it all the better that it’s impossible to take your eyes off him, or your ears: This is an actor who knows exactly how to toss off Sorkin’s dialogue, emphasizing rhythm and inflection over volume, while embodying confidence and authority in his every atom.”
He adds: “All but Jobs’ most violent detractors may take issue with a picture that can be read on one level as a form of high-end character assassination, and on another as a live-action cartoon. Sorkin’s warts-and-all approach is so thorough that it seems to discover warts on top of warts; you’d have to go back to “There Will Be Blood” to find another Hollywood antihero so willing to isolate himself from others, and to pursue his dreams with such violent single-mindedness.”
The influential IndieWire blog calls the film: “A deliriously quick-footed and orchestrally pitched character study… an ambitious, deeply captivating portrait of the high cost of genius.”
It adds that the move is essentially “a dazzling showcase of the brilliant, multi-layered, and rat-a-tat delivery of screenwriter Aaron Sorkin”.
The Guardian, though, is a little less taken aback.
In a three-star review (out of five), Benjamin Lee compliments Fassbender’s “confident and transformative performance”, calling it an “Oscar-friendly turn”.
He also offers qualified applause for Danny Boyle, who, he says, has made his “best film for years”.
Adds Lee: “This is admittedly faint praise but it’s worth recognising a leap in maturity, with a stronger focus on performances over his trademark flashiness.”
However, this time it’s Sorkin who leaves a critic cold.
“Sorkin’s heavily heightened sense of drama works best when the stakes are equally aligned but, despite the film constantly informing you of just how incredibly important everything all is, it’s disappointingly difficult to truly care about what’s taking place,” writes Lee.
He adds: “While there’s something to be admired about a script that’s unwilling to make things overly easy for the viewer, Sorkin’s terse prose and immediacy assumes enormous prior investment and an unwavering interest in the cult of Apple.”Music Business Worldwide
