Steve Jobs: The Movie

Started by Jeremy Blackman, October 05, 2015, 10:59:09 AM

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Jeremy Blackman





Director: Danny Boyle
Writer: Aaron Sorkin
Starring: Michael Fassbender as Steve Jobs, Seth Rogen as Steve Wozniak
Release Date: October 9, 2015 (This Friday)

Jeremy Blackman

Jeremy Blackman:   Too bad Seth Rogen is going to ruin that new Steve Jobs movie
Lottery:   I actually have hopes for Rogen. I didn't entirely buy the 'serious actor Jonah Hill' thing but maybe he'll be better.
Jeremy Blackman:   I don't know, he looks reaaaaally terrible in the trailer. Just playing himself, not even trying to inhabit a character.
Jeremy Blackman:   Trust me it's not going to work
Reelist:   Weve seen him in sooo many different settings playing that same person. i don't know if audiences can accept him playing an authentic character
Jeremy Blackman:   Seriously watch the trailer. It looks like a Seth Rogen joke cameo next to Fassbender, who is giving his all. Super bizarre.
Jeremy Blackman:   Rogen's bits in the second trailer are even worse. Like he's struggling to use a different voice.

modage

I saw this over the weekend and it's almost as good as you want it to be. There's something very theatrical about the entire film though, so all the performances feel a little stagey (Fassbender is completely committed to his performance but never looks or sounds anything like Jobs, Kate Winslet's Eastern European accent only shows up in Act 2 and 3, etc.) but it kinda works anyway. Ironically Rogen is Rogen in his delivery so I never thought twice about him, he sells every line emotionally and that's what counts anyway. The most brilliant thing about the film -- and surely most discussed -- is the structure of the screenplay and it turns what could've been a very boring biopic into an electric 3 acts of real-time drama where the tension of the ticking clock is constantly felt. Paired with Sorkin's ratatat dialogue and actors relishing the opportunity to deliver it, it's very exciting. The only real bummer is that it doesn't quite keep up the pace of Act 1 in the subsequent 2 acts and there are some emotional notes near the end that don't quite land like I wanted them to. Otherwise, it's really good stuff though.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

samsong

Steve Jobs

- sorkinian histrionics endurance test with a third act humanist pump fake that highlights his misanthropy, which is only of any value when met with a directorial sensibility that is as cold and calculated (ie fincher, and only fincher)
- danny boyle continues to lose himself to lowest common denominator hack-dom
- terrible attempt at a philip glass score
- fassbender's dilated, soul-devouring pupils and voice are perfect
- kate winslet is a babe, and a great actress, in that order.
- michael stuhlbarg is one of my faves. he is, for me, infallible.
- seth rogen is approaching jonah hill levels of "you're the worst, and i hate you" syndrome. maybe the laziest performance ever.
- i guess it was entertaining

can't wait for "MUSK".

Jeremy Blackman


Gold Trumpet

The film is excellent in so many ways. Watching anything written by Sorkin and visualized by Boyle is just great entertainment and both handle the story very well. I enjoy myself immensely watching most things they do. One does not need to go into too much reason why to be stunned by what they can do.

But for me, the standout is Michael Fassbender. He's in every scene and he's carrying every scene. It's crazy how much he has to do and the work one tell goes into the performance. While Fassbender doesn't sound like Jobs, many people involved with the history say it's uncanny what Fassbender does to detail the person back into a full performance. Spoiler, while he does find some enlightenment by the end, the performance isn't a full linear narrative from monster/confused to fully aware. There are a lot of ebbs and flows the subtly with how Fassbender lays out a character who always will have psychological issues, is great. Especially when the drama is the story revolves around 3 long scenes of narrative realism. Wonderful performance that I think will be outflanked by Leonardo DiCaprio going full Klaus Kinski in the Revenent. Both will probably be great (I know one is) but i can see a type of performance like this could be seen as a little more lackluster.

Jeremy Blackman

'Steve Jobs' Bombs: What Went Wrong With the Apple Drama

http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/steve-jobs-flops-1201626243/

When Amy Pascal allowed "Steve Jobs" to leave Sony for Universal, the studio chief fretted that she had let a modern day "Citizen Kane" slip through her fingers.

The strikingly literate biopic about the Apple co-founder was brilliant she noted, but after Leonardo DiCaprio and Christian Bale passed on the title role, it lacked a major star, limiting its commercial prospects. In the end, Pascal, whose job was already threatened by a string of flops like  "After Earth" and "White House Down," couldn't justify the risk.

Fast-forward nearly a year. Pascal is out of a job, "Steve Jobs" has debuted to rapturous reviews, and the film is a strong Oscar contender. It's every bit as good as Pascal thought it would be, but the then Sony chief's wariness also appears to have been entirely justified.

"Steve Jobs" was too brainy, too cold, and too expensive to make it a success. Moreover, Michael Fassbender, the electrifying Irish actor who replaced Bale as Jobs, lacks the drawing power to open the picture.

After racking up the year's best per-screen average  in its opening weekend and doing strong business in limited expansion, "Steve Jobs" hit a stumbling block in its national release. It debuted to a measly $7.3 million, only a little more than the $6.7 million that "Jobs," a critically derided film about the iPhone father with Ashton Kutcher, made in its initial weekend. Going into the weekend, some tracking suggested that the picture would do as much as $19 million.

So what went wrong?

Universal believes that the picture can recover. Studio executives note that it is popular in major urban markets like San Francisco and New York, and argue that the film's A minus CinemaScore means word-of-mouth will be strong. If it can stay in theaters until Golden Globe and Oscar nominations are announced, they believe it can rebound.

"We are going to continue to support the film in the markets where it is showing strength and we're going to continue to do it aggressively and proactively," said Nick Carpou, Universal's domestic distribution chief. "The critics are there for it and the buzz in these markets is strong."

It's still hard to see how the film turns a profit. The picture cost $30 million to make and at least as much to market. That means that "Steve Jobs" needs to do at least $120 million in order to break even. Given that the film is dialogue-driven and lacks a major star, its foreign prospects seem bleak. It's almost entirely a domestic play, and so far it's only made about $10 million.

"There was an over-inflated sense of how well this film could do," said Jeff Bock, an analyst with Exhibitor Relations. "Its only chance now is to gain awards traction."

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cronopio2

this is a filthy rotten industry.

Alexandro

Quote from: Jeremy Blackman on October 15, 2015, 10:52:47 PM
Quote from: samsong on October 15, 2015, 03:42:54 PMa third act humanist pump fake

Can you buy those on Amazon?

haha. that was a hell of a way to pretty much ruin an otherwise effective and enthralling piece of filmmaking for me. what a dumb move, to build a cursed asshole genius character for two fucking hours, execute it with precision and then with nothing to sustain it, change the whole code of the film for an uplifting bullshit finale. all the way through I kept thinking: "hey, this is way better than I expected. every actor is great, the atmosphere, the crisp intelligent dialogue, the musical choices..." Nobody was likeable but everything was interesting, it was an interesting world and you could feel the momentum the characters felt about their actions and inventions. And Jobs became more and more like a tragic figure, you could admire and feel sorry for him at the same time. Cool shit.

And then, bam. What the fuck? Stupid corny "feel good" song, emotional closure, applauses, lack of irony. Like a total different movie. Those final five minutes are horrible. And it's all in the direction. The screenplay is fine. I was seeing the actors deliver the lines, seeing the scenes "naked" and they could actually work. But every choice made in the directing was completely opposed to everything that came before: the music cues, the cuts, the actor's expressions, every single thing. I HATE when movies chicken out in the final minutes and become corny for no reason. Hate it. Fuck this.

SherryBrooks

Thank you for sharing a wonderful movie with me.