As I type this blog on a Macbook Air I realize how Steve Jobs has been compared to The Beatles and Michelangelo. I remembered when he died and their was candlelight vigils and flowers in front of the Apple Store's. I never once fell for this joke of a modern icon. It always seemed ironic to me that people where calling a man who designed a computer a Renaissance man and a revolutionary. He could not hold a candle to Michelangelo. Steve Job's was a corporate tool that helped contribute to the icy solitude of our society by developing technology for computer products. Think of a time in life without computer products and how much more enriched the experience was when most people were actually aware of the present moment.
Needless to say going into Danny Boyle's film I had my doubts. However, Michael Fassbender is on fire as an electric narcissistic, egomaniac, obsessive compulsive, control freak. The line of Aaron Sorkin's dialogue that keeps resonating in my mind is during the second launch Fassbender exclaims to Kate Winslet "of course we are going we are going to start on TIME!!!" This may sound like a trivial line, but in a sense it signifies everything about the character he portrays. The efficiency and robotic nature of Fassbender in the role is awe-inspiring. Like Anthony Hopkins portraying President Nixon in Oliver Stone's Nixon. There is no physical similarities to the characters. As a viewers you may find Nixon and Jobs despicable, but you want to keep digging through the layers of the cake. Their is no mimicking either. Fassbender creates someone who is not Steve Jobs, but someone of his own. He arranges flowers to look more simplistic. He dips his feet in toilet water. This is someone who denies his offspring and is horrible to all of his friends. In many ways he is so obsessed with creating the Apple Computer because he thinks the operating system will heal himself. He is an orphan and has trust issues. By having a more user friendly computer perhaps he thinks he will be a more user friendly person.
The acting is the best I have seen all year. Fassbender goes above and beyond and creates a character unlike any other. He sees himself as a conductor of an orchestra. He is determined beyond belief, yet their is a vulnerability that he does not have the ingredients or social skills to be human. He lives in a delusional reality and is so egocentric that he cannot even see other peoples problems. Even when those problems are hitting him over the head like a frying pan. The scene between him and Kate Winslet when she throws the papers on the floor is star studded. The exchange that occurs between Fassbender and Seth Rogen in the symphony room dictates the crux of the whole story.
Cheers to Fassbender, Aaron Sorkin, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, and Danny Boyle Steve Jobs was the movie of the year.
Thanks to the hits from ITALIA, Russia, France, Indonesia, and Argentina!!! Keep global cinema rolling.
