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MOVIE REVIEW Sorkin's 'Steve Jobs' unpacks the baggage Comment By Chris Honoré for Revels DailyTidings.com By Chris Honoré for Revels Posted Oct. 29, 2015 at 12:01 AM By Chris Honoré for Revels Posted Oct. 29, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Social News Steve Jobs; 122 min; Rated R Aaron Sorkin, the gifted screenwriter who wrote “Steve Jobs” and “The Social Network,” as well as countless installments of “The West Wing , ” is known for his rapid and succinct dialogue. He is a master of language, especially when spoken by bright, erudite characters. The film “Steve Jobs”(like so much of his work) is a valentine to those scenes wherein people are confined to small or expansive rooms while engaged in thrust-and-parry conversations. The question, however, is does a filmgoer, no matter the superb writing, want to spend two hours with an individual who is, without deviation or remorse, a driven, arrogant, manipulative, hubristic jerk? Now that may not be the totality of Jobs as an individual, and Sorkin has indeed stated that he hopes “the movie announces itself as being a painting and not a photograph.” Which is an elegant way of saying that he took a great deal of literary license with Jobs as a man and with what is considered to be the definitive (and credited) biography written by Walter Isaacson. So this is not a biopic but an impressionistic canvas upon which the filmmaker’s create a man who while familiar, may be to those who actually knew him, unrecognizable. What Sorkin and director Danny Boyle (“Slumdog Millionaire” ) do is create three acts that are perfectly balanced. Act one involves the introduction of the Mackintosh in 1984; act two Jobs (now fired from Apple) introduces a computer known as NeXT; the year is 1988; and act three is about the 1998 launch of the iMac. As each computer is brought forward, sitting stage-center in a huge auditorium filled with enthusiastic believers, there is tension and drama backstage. Friends, colleagues and family show up just before Jobs walks out on that stage, and all the current and prior issues in his life, to include an ex-girlfriend, Chrisann Brennan (Katherine Waterston), with a child, Lisa (played successively by Makenzie Moss, Ripley Sobo and Perla Haney Jardine), that Jobs insists is not his, are confronted. During these pre-launch moments, many of them walk and talk, the character of Jobs is revealed, each encounter a window into his persona: he is abusive, aspirational, visionary and dictatorial. In many ways, “Steve Jobs”is a forensic examination of the man and his baggage, unpacked in one scene after another of Freudian real time and backstory. He was adopted as a baby, his biological parents relinquishing him, something that John Sculley (Jeff Daniels) discusses with Jobs in an attempt to push him toward self-understanding, hoping to give him insights into his inner demons. Impossible with Jobs; he’s too bright and armored. The film is also morality tale, predicated on the assumption that there can exist in the same individual two people who do battle with one another: the genius who is obsessive and driven and single-minded, as well as that person who can, however briefly, drop his defenses and yield. Ever so slightly. Jobs believed he was going to change the world. He says so. And in fact he did. Millions of people now stand, heads bent downward, focused on screens, believing they are connected. He did this not as an engineer or coder, which he was not. But as someone who could see beyond the circuitry and then release the inherent and revolutionary potential computers possessed. He tells Lisa that she will soon carry a thousand songs in her pocket and not on a Walkman brick. One last point: The film “Steve Jobs” is a buffet of superb acting, led by Michael Fassbender as Jobs, his portrayal is complemented at every turn by Kate Winslet as his loyal marketing manager, Joanna Hoffman. Daniels is spot-on as the laconic Sculley, as is Seth Rogen in the role of the decent Steven “Woz” Wozniak. This film asks to be admired while also creating feelings of ambivalence. Jobs is not easy to hang out with; of course, he never cuts off his ear, it just feels like there are moments when he wants to. By Chris Honoré for Revels DailyTidings.com By Chris Honoré for Revels Posted Oct. 29, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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