Steve Jobs

Apple founder Steve Jobs has become a rather scrutinised figure in both documentary and film after his death in 2011. This latest biopic however, comes at the hands of both director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, both of whom are known for their rather honest depictions of the world as it is and portrayals of famous people in not so flattering terms. This already fixating combination of talents is made complete with a subtle but powerful performance by leading man Michael Fassbender.

Steve Jobs is split into three acts, each covering a specific period in the life of the man, taking place prior to a product launch that was important in his life. The first takes place in 1984 at the launch of Jobs' (Michael Fassbender) latest dream product, the Macintosh. He is supported by his marketing manager and confidant Johanna Hoffman (Kate Winslet) as he contends with the mother of his daughter Chrisann (Katherine Waterston) and technical problems with the launch that he blames on Andy Hertzfeld (Michael Stuhlbarg). In 1988, Jobs has left Apple and is working on a new project NeXT, which he thinks will be an important educational tool despite its high price. He also clashes with Apple CEO John Sculley (Jeff Daniels) about leaving Apple and Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen) over comments made during an interview. Finally in 1998, Jobs is back at Apple and is about to launch the iMac G3, the product that revitalised the company.

Where this film succeds that past films have failed (particulary 2013's Jobs) is that is not an ambitious film in its scope. Instead of covering every aspect of Jobs' life, the film covers three important moments in his career. That's not to say that the film is lacking for details about Jobs' personality or where he came from. We learn a lot from brief flashbacks where characters discuss his background. Despite Sorkin's snappy writing, the film does have a certain level of predictability when it comes to each of the segments. It seems that Sorkin just had a formula for each one and just changed certain details. Somehow this dragged out the movie for me and made the film less riveting than it should have been.

Which was a lot, considering Fassbender's remarkable performance is completely riveting. He plays Jobs as a sociopathic egomaniac who just wants to make the world of his genius. And you do believe that he believes he is the smartest human ever because Fassbender plays him with the right amount of charm, Kate Winslet's role I found difficult to categorise. I was trying to figure out whether she was a lead character orm a supporting one, but I suppose they all are next to who the movie is about. She really was the emotional core of the movie. Seth Rogen's boyish lovability comes in handy as Steve Wozniak and Jeff Daniels plays a more depressing version of the CEO he played in The Martian. Newcomer Perla Haney-Jardine is a strong presence as Jobs' daughter Lisa in the older sequences.

Boyle's biopic is convincing at times and peters out at others and this has to do with a shaky script from the usually strong Sorkin. Fassbender's performance I think will be strong enough for him to take home the big prize at the Oscars.

Danny Boyle to make 'Trainspotting 2'

Danny Boyle has been very busy recently. His Steve Jobs biopic has been getting some early praise from critics - and perhaps more importantly, Steve Wozniak - and today, just before the first public screening, he's announced that he plans for his next project to be Trainspotting 2, the follow-up to his classic 1996 film.

The sequel will be based on Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh's novel Porno which is itself a sequel to the original, which followed a group of Scottish heroin addicts in their passage through life. The film featured arguably one of Ewan McGregor's finest performances and also starred Ewen Bremner, Kevin McKidd and Robert Carlyle as the infamous Begbie.

Trainspotting screenwriter John Hodge has already provided Boyle with a script which he describes as "terrific", set ten years after the events of the first film, 2 will follow the four leads as they venture into the pornographic world. It's reported that McGregor, Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller and Carlyle have all signed up to appear in the sequel.  

P.S: Perhaps most interestingly for me (Ed) is whether 'Underworld' will once again feature heavily in the film. I am personally a huge fan of the electronic band (mainly thanks to 'Trainspotting') and they certainly set the tone for some of its greatest scenes including this ending scene *spoilers*:

Christian Bale as Steve Jobs

So fresh on the heels of the previous Steve Jobs biopic that nobody saw (although I hear Ashton Kutcher did a passable job) comes news of another biopic of the Apple founder. It will be written by the prominent Aaron Sorkin, who is famous for his work on the TV shows The West Wing and The Newsroom, as well as winning Best Adapted Screenplay for The Social Network. He will this time be adapting Walter Isaacson's biography and if The Social Network is anything to go on, this film should be sharp.

Sorkin has recently stated in an interview that Christian Bale has been cast in the role. He praised him for his work and said that "we needed the best actor on the board in a certain age range and that was Chris Bale". Sorkin also said of the film that role will be extremely difficult and that "he says more words than most people in three movies combined". Other actors rumoured for the role were Bradley Cooper, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Leo DiCaprio was attached at one stage too. Danny Boyle will direct.

Where this will fit in terms of previous films about Jobs is anyone's guess. Whether it will focus on his early career like jOBS (2013) or his rivalry with Bill Gates a la Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999) is a mystery. Certainly due to the scope of both the biography and Sorkin's method of writing, I'm sure that it will be dialogue heavy and epic in scope.