New York Film Festival has been known to bring some amazing films to its audience, and this year is no exception. After screening of "The Walk" last week, this weekend's highlight was the upcoming Danny Boyle movie, Steve Jobs. This is a long awaited project written by Aaron Sorkin, based on the book by Walter Isaacs.
Steve Jobs is being portrayed by Michael Fassbender, who looks nothing like Steve Jobs, but still does and amazing job of embodying the character, the man, the legend. In fact by the end, in third act, he does start to even look like him. Kate Winslet has given an excellent performance as Joanna Hoffman, bringing the depth and strength of the character, who many may not be even familiar with. Seth Rogen as Steve Wozniak, is truly the Woz we know. No wonder he himself loved Seth's performance. Jeff Daniels as the infamous John Sculley, brings a new shade to the person who many may not believe. But he really makes Sculley appear much more human and normal. Rest of the supporting cast is also brilliant and has done a great job.
The movie written by Sorkin does not follow traditional story telling. It focuses on 30 mins, behind the scenes of 3 big launches with Steve Jobs - the Macintosh, NeXT computers and iMac. It has couple flashbacks tied to the dialogues but not a lot. Sorkin has done beautiful job in consolidating Jobs in 3 chapter. The movie flows through well written dialogue, beautiful imagery and wonderful performances. Boyle's direction of Sorkin's script does not seem like an easy job, but just like a conductor, who carries the orchestra amazingly well, which becomes this beautiful masterpiece of a movie.
It does manage to humanize the man, but still focuses on the iWorship. The scenes between Steve and Joanna/Woz/Sculley/Lisa/Andy are very well crafted and well acted. The tension, the excitement, the joy, the pain, the thrill is all there. Movie seems to slow down at few times, due to lot of dialogue, but manages to pace through just in time to not get boring. The 30 min scenes move fast and have a lot to offer. Each scene with almost same character is still very different. Even shot differently from 16 mm, to 35 mm to Alexa. The movie not only looks beautiful but feels beautiful. The music and score also compliments the music perfectly.
Watch this movie if you're a fan, follower or just appreciator of Steve Jobs, OR if you love different but interesting filmmaking. And if you don't like Steve Jobs or Apple, just wait for a movie about Microsoft/Google or OpenSource!