It sucks when a great movie bombs at the box office. When mediocre films excel and well made films fail to make a profit. Unfortunately, it looks like Steve Jobs will be one of those movies that fails to make it’s money back at least in a theater run. My brother and I were the only two in the theater which had it’s advantages (shoving Reese’s pieces into my face loudly with no one but my brother to give me dirty looks) but it also just kinda sucked to see a well crafted film not receiving the attention it deserves.

Steve Jobs depicts what happened before three of Steve Job’s product unveilings (one in 1984, another in 1988 and the third set in 1998) and how the relationships in his personal life evolved (or perhaps devolved) as he got older. Steve Jobs was a bit of a jerk. It’s a well known fact but understanding why he acted this way is more is much more practical than just passing judgment on the late Apple creator. The man was a visionary and perhaps a genius, but he was also intense and greatly prioritized how people saw his work over how people saw him, which led him to act quite crass, merciless, and unforgiving.  

The star of the show here is Aaron Sorkin’s script. Having written The Social Network, which is still considered perhaps the best written film of the decade so far, five years after it’s release his reputation for crafting insightful and engaging dialogue carries over into this film. Every word that comes out of the character’s mouths is important and reveals something about the characters and through these characters we learn more about Jobs himself.

The direction from Danny Boyle is also solid, using 16mm film for 1984, 35mm for 1988, and digital technology for 1998 was a master stroke and helped to show technology advance right before your eyes. Intense scenes are somehow crafted out of little action including an effective and heartbreaking scene where Jobs is alone practicing his speech for the computer he rejected a relationship with his daughter to focus on creating and he can’t stop thinking about her, visibly regretful of how he’s acted to her over her 19 years of life.

Michael Fassbender is pretty darn brilliant as Jobs, even changing his voice quite a bit for the role. In fact all of the performances are strong including an unexpectedly great performance from Seth Rogen as Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

Overall the film is great and I wish it wasn’t absolutely drowning at the box office. It’s much more deserving of attention than a lot of movies making a lot more money.

8.5/10 Recommended to people interested in an in depth and powerful examination of one of America’s most important entrepreneurs.