Steve Jobs (2015) Review

Steve Jobs is directed by Danny Boyle, written by Aaron Sorkin and starring Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogan and Jeff Daniels. It is based on Steve Jobs who we all know was the CEO of Apple, the film is set before three of Steve’s most iconic product launches including the Macintosh, the Next and the iMac.

When the trailer first came out for this film people criticised it purely for the fact that it was about Steve Jobs, I personally thought it was captivating and it looked to be an intense and well done drama. With both Danny Boyle and Aaron Sorkin attached as writer and director my expectations grew until I finally got to see it as part of the London Film Festival.

Did it live up to my expectations? Let me just say that Michael Fassbender has starred in the two best films of the year, this and Macbeth. I was absolutely captivated throughout it’s entire two hour run time.

Each shot looked beautiful with stunning cinematography and lighting, I could randomly pull out a still from this film and it would look amazing 98% of the time. The shots didn’t consist of close ups and establishing shots like most films do, I really loved the use of reflections and mirrors, there were also plenty of long takes which must have been incredibly difficult to pull off with the amount of dialogue the actors had to say.

On the note of dialogue, Aaron Sorkin’s screenplay was astounding, each line felt carefully written and stringed together creating convincing and utterly fantastic writing. The arguments of which there are plenty of absolutely blew me away, a couple of scenes in particular bringing me to tears of joy. This film made me cry not just from the raw emotion from the several conflicts Steve was in the centre of but just because of how amazing it was, extremely complex scenes of powerful acting and writing all expertly shot had me stunned and I just felt my eyes begin to water from the film’s pure excellence. Even though most of the script consisted of very serious and dramatic dialogue that doesn’t mean there was no humour. It was a strange feeling after being thrust between these breathtaking conflicts to suddenly find yourself laughing. Few films have shifted emotions so seamlessly like this film did, and the humour didn’t feel out of place either which is the case with many other pictures like this.

Each and every performance was astounding, even the child performances where emotional and convincing, the adult actors even more so. These actors had to remember pages of complex dialogue and deliver it with such raw emotion and I applaud them for it because it was so entertaining to watch. Each character was interesting and unique all with their own distinct goals and personalities

The score by Daniel Pemberton supplemented this film fantastically ranging from simple electronic beats to complex orchestrated tracks that added tension boosted the impact of many scenes. You often have scores that just morph into the background without doing anything more than just adding more sound to the film, scores like these really stand out to me while I am watching the film, I can imagine this film without its music would be nowhere near as tense and gripping as it was.

Overall ‘Steve Jobs’ was captivating, beautiful and an intense dramatic ride which will have you on the edge of your seat more than most action films. The score was brilliant and the dialogue a triumph of writing, made even better with raw emotional performances from a superb cast. Sheer brilliance which will have tears of pure joy running down your face, this is one of the best films of the year so far just behind Macbeth. Even if you hate Apple, as long as you are a lover of cinema you will enjoy this film because in the end it wasn’t pro or anti Apple/Steve Jobs, you it didn’t tell you how to think you got to judge for yourself and that’s what makes films like this so great. Turley a masterpiece.

9.5/10