Are there many diverse directors in Hollywood who can bring high quality movies from many genres? It is a task to find a long list, but Danny Boyle’s name would have to be somewhere near the top. From his early days with Transporting to terrifying us and redefining an entire genre with 28 Days Later. Boyle flexes his muscles of being able to drive both characters and locations such as with 127 Hours and Slumdog Millionaire.
Most recently he has focused an entire two hour movie around three scenes, a Herculean task that is the biopic Steve Jobs. The film looks at his life and relationships in the moments before three product launches. And there you have the entire synopsis of the film. It is simplistic yet utterly ambitious as it strives to define its characters as well as present a personal arc for Jobs, played fantastically by Micheal Fassbender. He is not a spitting image of the man he portrayed, and that was not at all what the film’s team were going for. They desired someone to capture the socially awkward, controlling, yet still fractured essence of the tech icon.
The true standout in this movie is the captivatingly sharp screenplay from Aaron Sorkin. In any film that has limited scenes and location, the script is the foundation which can determine whether it is a dud or a quality affair. Think of a film like San Andreas where Dwayne Johnson runs around crashing buildings and buckling roads to get to his wife and daughter. The main attraction is the sense of adventure that we are supposed to get, and a serviceable script is all that is needed.
Serviceable, however, does not work in a film with limited eye candy or threats of physical danger to the protagonist. A 'serviceable script' can flatten the film as quick as the earthquake battling The Rock in San Andreas levelled buildings and the Hoover Damn. At the time of writing this I am currently halfway through Circle, a film that takes place in one location and attempts to be a psychological horror. The concept for it, which I won't share here, is an interesting one, but it suffers from a very blunt and didactic script. Hence the reason I have only watched half of it so far.
Of course a wonderful script can only work if the actors involved are able to pull it off. With Steve Jobs we have an outstanding supporting cast who elevate the material. Kate Winslet, Seth Rogan, and Jeff Daniels are able to keep up with the performance from Fassbender giving Danny Boyle a rich deposit of recourses to string together in an outstanding biopic.
In the end I walked away with feeling that I had just witnessed much of the human experience, from rage and pride to emptiness and sorrow. In the right hands, a film can leave out many of the lavish peripherals that modern cinema dictates are necessary for a thrilling experience. With the force of the film in the hands of actors to deliver what special effects, explosions, and locations normally would. This lands much in the same realm Lincoln or The King’s Speech, it is proven that thrills can happen through words alone.
Rating - 3.5 out of 4 stars
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