Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by Mark Man (A) on October 25, 2015 at 08:27:35

In Reply to: RE: Shakespeare on Silicon . . . . posted by Billy Wonka on October 24, 2015 at 14:30:32

"This isn't what I expected at all. This was a play not a film (much in the vein Birdman). The sets and background were immaterial to the high dramatic dialog written to illustrate Jobs' life and attitudes--emphasis on attitudes"

I totally agree with this statement...this was a 3 act play...Danny Boyle being a theater guy also...

Aaron Sorkin screen play and dialog, similar to the Newsroom, (which I really liked) and the Social Network, (aka another bio pic), is people fast talking over each other...similar to a Robert Altman movie...

This paints Jobs as a maniacal, brilliant, visionary prick...no people skills or the ability acknowledge others contributions or their hard work...

This movie begs the question is he more style than substance? They really emphasize Apples' closed system and how their operating system was intentionally designed not to play well with others...which has improved, but still a major part of their design philosophy...with ALL their products...

Act 1 shows us his lack of warmth in claiming his daughter was NOT his and how badly he treated his baby momma with holding money and paying the bare minimum in child support...even with a quote in Time magazine, about how his daughter might not be his and his baby momma was a whore...in a very passive aggressive way...once his then 5 year old uses the Mac...he shows signs of being human and opens up the coffers...Also he felt "HE" should have been the Time magazine Man of the Year and NOT the computer...

There was allot of emphases in act one on that infamous Super Bowl TV commercial, which I still vividly remember, and when he makes the statement that the commercial was bigger than the football game, IMHO, was a very true statement...

They do show what a colossal failure the original Mac was and again the Apple 2 was keeping Apple afloat...

Steve Wozniak, played by Seth Rogen, who does a really nice job...Just wanted Jobs to acknowledge the Apple 2 team...which becomes a theme in all 3 acts...WHICH plays into the main spine of the movie, if Jobs did not come up with idea, it was not a good idea...

Act 2 was the launch of his other company, once he was released from Apple, NEXT...this really showed his brilliance as a business man...where he kept saying to Winslet..."the plan will reveal itself as it happens"...Knowing he had a turd of product, with basically no operating system...but knowing his public persona as being a "visionary" would force Apple to buy him up...he does not come out and say it, that he leaked the idea to a journalist, that Apple should buy NEXT...but he had exact figures of what it is going to cost Apple to do that...

Act 3 was the launch of the IMac, but with the most emphasis on his relationship with his daughter, who still calls him Steve and Wozniak and Jobs having an argument in front of a bunch of Apple peeps...this was not the big reveal, but basically a recap of what a prick Jobs really was...

His singularity of focus is highlighted and everything else in his life was a distraction personally and professionally...it is Winslet, more on her later, who keeps "trying" to show him what his priorities should really be...she was "his" consensus and slap him with his lack of compassion and humanity...and his only true confidant...he mends fences with his daughter after she undresses him in front to everyone...Once again using his wealth to control his baby momma, not seeing the consequence of what it was doing to his daughter...towards the end of movie he mentions the Ipod, because his daughter always was seen with a Walkman around her neck...with the movie ending on an upbeat, look I have semi-changed into a human being...

Fassbender will get an Oscar nomination for his performance and it is well deserved...delivering Sorkin's dialog like a machine gun...his emersion of character is noteworthy...but this is what we expect from him...NOTE: Depp's performance in Black Mass is much better than Fassbender's in this movie...

Winslet will also get a nomination for best supporting actress...she does have this Streep quality about her and is typically never caught acting...the 20 year time frame as Jobs right hand, feels organic and is the only one who will tell Jobs the truth, stand-up to him and again be his consensus...

NOW...Jeff Daniels career has slowly made him our American version of Michael Caine...he is just a great character actor...Period...over the last several years, Dumb and Dumber 2 aside, has turned in just believable solid performances one after another...his every man quality is inviting and human...his leading man performance in the Newsroom won him an Emmy, which was well deserved...I do not believe he is always leading man material, but as a supporting character actor he is one of the best...IMHO...

Overall, this is a "good" movie...not great...does give you their version of Jobs and is a character study to a world changing man...just wonder over to the Computer Board and listen to them scream...TASTES GREAT (pc)...LESS FILLING (mac)...3.75 stars out of 5

NOW...sidebar...I personally feel Apple has single handedly ruined the music business, more so than Napster...music downloads from ITunes pays the artists ridicules small royalties...my younger brother's band has had 3000 plus downloads and got a check of $.43 from ITunes...could not even buy a fricking stamp...don't let me get started on the MP3's

Many of the Major Artists are just giving away their albums as free downloads, since there is no money in it...If you have not noticed ALL the current POP-ular bands have to do these world wide traveling circus extravagant tours to pay the bills...Which begs the question would Bob Dylan, (who is now selling IBM's), Neil Young, (pushing his Pono player) or Tom Petty whose concerts are just music and did not fit into the Millennials version of a Music Artist...would make it today on their music alone???

Well, that is just my $.02...
Thanks
Mark