‘Steve Jobs’ might be the year’s best movie so far

Steve Jobs is all about the personal computer and the businessman’s connection to them. Via flashback, it covers Jobs and his founding of Apple, struggles with getting it going, rebellion in the ranks, an ignominious ousting from the company, and redemption and rebirth as the innovative leader of what is now possibly the most valuable company in the world.

A movie about a marketing genius — and that’s what Jobs was — sounds kind of boring. But it’s not. Director Danny Boyle and writer Aaron Sorkin have done one hell of a good movie. This one has — for sure — best picture, best director, best actor, best supporting actress and best screenplay written all over it.

Michael Fassbender, the Oscar and Golden Globe best supporting actor nominee for 12 Years a Slave, stars as Jobs. Any adjective tossed out here pales in comparison to the actual performance. The guy is the best actor working today.

Lines fly like lightning as Fassbender and co-stars Kate Winslet, Jeff Daniels and Seth Rogen, who stars as Steve Wozniak, banter. Fassbender plays Jobs like the the real life man. He’s cold, focused and all business. And just when it seems he has no heart at all, the script gives him one, and then just as quickly, takes it away.

Brilliant filmmaking. Give that credit to Sorkin (The Social Network). His scripts tend to have as much energy and speed as an Apple computer’s fastest processor. Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) isn’t bad either. He’s a master storyteller and manages to make Steve Jobs make sense even though there are huge time gaps in the story.

Also, the dialogue and much of what’s seen on the screen probably didn’t happen. So think of it more like a play brought to the silver screen than a movie. Or for the computer literate, it’s a movie that has a different operating system than the usual fare.

This story was originally published October 22, 2015 at 6:00 AM with the headline "‘Steve Jobs’ might be the year’s best movie so far."