STEVE JOBS: Worm in the Apple

NOTE: Spoil different.

"I sat in a garage and invented the future because artists lead and hacks ask for a show of hands!"

- Steve Jobs (Michael Fassbender), Steve Jobs

Making a biopic is never an easy thing to do. A life does not fit into three acts, snappy dialogue does not come naturally to everyone and if the subject of the film is still alive, a satisfactory conclusion is hard to create. Still, when a movie about a global technical innovator who might not be as nice as they think they are needs to be made, Aaron Sorkin is Hollywood's answer to the call. David Fincher's The Social Network was a rousing success, both critically and financially and resulted in Sorkin getting an Oscar for his screenplay. Whereas Mark Zuckerberg is still alive (and constantly fighting the image of him from the film), Sorkin chose to adapt a biography of a recently deceased man who invented devices that link us all but may have been difficult to work with: Steve Jobs.

The one problem being that there had already been a major motion picture that depicted the life of Steve Jobs: Jobs, released in the two years Sorkin was researching and writing his film (and also getting "The Newsroom" on HBO), starring Ashton Kutcher in the title role. The film was not well-received, though people could not deny Kutcher's resemblence to the real life Jobs. There was also the long and often disastrous road of getting Steve Jobs to the screen. Initially set up at Columbia Pictures, the same studio that released Social Network, Sorkin tried to recruit David Fincher to direct. Fincher vowed he would not make the film unless he could get his first choice for the title role: Christian Bale (an actor who is no stranger to a bad reputation). Bale had other film schedules to honor and both he and Fincher passed on the project. Leonardo DiCaprio was also considered (an actor who is no stranger to playing troubled billionaire inventors), but passed to do The Revenant. But worse was to come: thanks to the massive controversy behind a film directed by Steve Jobs star Seth Rogen, The Interview, Sony - the parent corporation of Columbia Pictures - put the film in turnaround in order to restrategize their film slate. Universal gladly picked up the film, hired Academy Award winner Danny Boyle and cast X-Men actor Michael Fassbender as Steve Jobs. Filming took an unheard of two months on schedule. 

Taking place at three different product launches in three different years, Steve Jobs (Fassbender) seems to be having three different worse days of his life. The world-changing technology he wants to demonstrate is not working, there is discontent in the ranks, and to make matters worse an ex-girlfriend (Katherine Waterston) of his dragging a little girl (Perla Haney-Jardine, Ripley Sobo, and Makenzie Moss) with her demands more and more of his money. His best friend and co-founder of Apple, Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen) pleads with him to acknowledge the team behind Apple II, something Jobs refuses to do. His self-appointed "work wife", Joanna Hoffman (Kate Winslet) acts as Steve's conscience, his sounding board, his verbal bodyguard and is getting fed up with him. But ultimately, it is the little girl named Lisa who is trying to win Steve's heart, if indeed he has one.

Between this new film and the Kutcher movie, there is a more than decent Steve Jobs film out there. But this one is not it. Where The Social Network succeeded in presenting arguments between multiple groups of people and let the audience decide who was telling the truth, Steve Jobs lays the story as if it were divine truth (Jobs is sarcastically referred to as God in the film, but asks who could love a God who sends His Son on a "suicide mission"). The trump card that Sorkin is using is that the real-life Steve Wozniak supported the making of this film and not the Kutcher film in which Steve Jobs is portrayed as a billionaire who just so happens to also be a struggling artist (and is portrayed in a more positive light). The opening act of the film, in which a technical glitch resulting in the Macintosh not being able to say the word, "Hello" results in Jobs angrily threatening to ruin Andy Hertzfeld (Michael Stuhlbarg)'s public standings, never happened. "Creation myths need a devil," Rashida Jones' character says in the Sorkin-written The Social Network. Clearly he has not strayed too far, despite Sorkin's protesting that the film "...is a painting, not a photograph". If you put everyone in a closed room and talked to them, there is a high probability that they would all be different than they are in public. Why? It is less formal, nobody is around and there is also no proof any of it actually happened.

The cast does well with the disappointingly stagy material. While Fassbender strikes me as a little too good-looking to play the gaunt Jobs (most notably his head is less round), he can definitely play the smartest guy in the room. His Jobs seems endlessly frustrated that he cannot take people apart like his computers and make them do what he wants. Kate Winslet disappears in her role as Hoffman, the woman devoted to her boss though demonstrating she should be fired by her attitude towards him. Seth Rogen (whose Interview film resulted in this film getting bumped from Columbia to Universal) seems to be chasing the Oscar that Jonah Hill has (somehow) been nominated for twice already. Rogen essentially has three scenes with Fassbender and all of them can be condensed down to...

WOZNIAK: Will you please publicly thank the people who built the only product Apple has made that has turned a profit?

JOBS: Not even if my life depended on it.

WOZNIAK: Okay. I'll go approve a movie that makes you look like a jerk now.

It's quite amusing that Jeff Daniels is in this film because not only is he also in another film this month (that beat this film at the box office) directed by a man whose famous Apple 1984 commercial is shown in the film and Daniels' character directly critiques it. His lengthy debates with Jobs are the highlight of the film, demonstrating Boyle's proficiency as a director. However, the actress who caught my eye in the film is Perla Haney-Jardine, who plays the eldest version of Jobs' daughter, Lisa. The few people running Hollywood who  saw this film have got to put her in more stuff (she had previously played the forgettable role of the Sandman's daughter in the infamous Spider-Man 3). There are very few performers who can essentially come out of nowhere and totally own a scene with an established actor and those last ten minutes of the film are jaw-dropping.  

Steve Jobs predictably "paints" its subject in a not-so-nice light. Sorkin's screenplay wants to invent reason upon reason to not like the guy we all know and love from his product speeches on YouTube. Whether or not it is the truth, it all depends on if the film presents a compelling story and in truth, it does not. It is suitable for a stage play, not a multi-million feature film. The cast rises to the occasion, and Boyle wisely maintains control over his frame and does not distract with wacky visuals as his filmography might suggest. Contrary to popular belief, this movie will not make you want to throw away the Apple products we cannot seem to live without. Though if you can live without this movie, I would not blame you.

And one more thing... if you're interested in reading the facts versus the fiction, give this a read: http://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/steve-jobs/.

THE MARTIAN: Mars Needs Matt Damon

NOTE: Mars Mild spoilers. Also, this review is being written almost immediately after my initial screening of the film, so this will be more in-depth than previous reviews.

"This will come as a complete shock to my crewmates and to NASA and to the entire world, but... I'm still alive. Obviously.... Surprise!"

- Mark Watney (Matt Damon), The Martian

Ridley Scott is a consummate filmmaker, without question. Though it is quite interesting, with as an eclectic career as he has, that he keeps returning to space movies. Alien is the oft-quoted "haunted house in space" movie, Blade Runner has mention of space battles in the closing soliloquy of antagonist Roy Batty and, most recently, Prometheus was the "everything-goes-to-hell" journey of mankind's search for our creators. Certainly, nobody was demanding Scott to return to the subject, but if he did, he'd certainly have to figure another way around it. 

Enter computer scientist Andy Weir who, on a whim in 2011, decided to write an one-of-a-kind survival story where an astronaut is accidentally stranded on Mars. The story grew so popular that it quickly became a popular purchase in Amazon.com's e-book section. Drew Goddard, most known as the writer/director of The Cabin in the Woods, adapted Weir's book with the intention of directing for himself. However, various deals with Marvel (most of which fell through; though one gave the world the popular Netflix series "Marvel's Daredevil") required his attentions. Producer Simon Kinberg (also co-writer of Sherlock Holmes and currently one of Disney's new Star Wars gurus) bought the project to Ridley Scott's attention at 20th Century Fox. Scott himself brought the project to an actor he had never worked with before, Matt Damon. Damon was skeptical at first; he had just made Christopher Nolan's Interstellar where he played a stranded astronaut (though of a different attitude). When Damon explained the particulars of the part, Scott assured him that wasn't what he had in mind.

In 2035 (according to author Weir, though never specified in the movie/novel), manned missions to Mars are nothing new. Though the crew of Ares III would have liked more of a heads-up for a massive storm heading their way which forces them to abandon their mission and escape the planet. Led by Commander Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain, in one of two October 2015 film roles), the team makes their way back to their lander in the middle of the storm but along the way some debris knocks away botanist Mark Watney (Damon). With his bio-readings inactive, they have no choice but to accept his death and proceed with the evacuation. Little do they know, Watney has survived and makes his way back to the lab that was set up for the mission. With no way to contact NASA and limited supplies, Watney has to make a life for himself until the next Ares mission. On Earth, scientists at NASA have discovered Watney's survival and gather their best to plot a rescue mission before time runs out.

It's strange to me how all the movies that glorify NASA - Apollo 13, Armageddon, Gravity and now The Martian, all involve Hell breaking loose on whatever mission was strategically planned (though in Michael Bay's case, he just wanted Bruce Willis to blow up an asteroid the size of Texas; poor sweet, freaking beautiful Liv Tyler...). I guess, especially in Gravity and The Martian's case, it's all about celebrating the ability of the individual to think through situations and the durability of the human spirit. What separates The Martian from the films mentioned above is its incredible sense of good humor. Weir's novel was plenty funny, but Goddard turned the 359 page book into a streamlined screenplay that never feels unfaithful to the source material. This does inevitably lose a lot of Mark Watney's more chuckle-inducing dialogue (though I have to applaud the marketing team for the film for giving one of my favorite lines back to Watney in one of the very well-made viral videos), but it moves the story along at the brisk pace necessary for a feature film. Mayhaps a Ridley Scott expanded cut is in order?

The cast - both in space and on Earth - cannot go overlooked. Damon, as Scott predicted, is (pardon the pun) light years away from his unlikable character in Interstellar. He is able to bring the necessary light-heartedness to the film as well as the believability for the technical know-how that his character continually expounds. Jessica Chastain brings a earnestness to Commander Lewis, where you genuinely feel the guilt she has for unknowingly leaving Watney behind which leads her to physically getting him back at the end. It's kinda funny that this movie features three notable Marvel actors: Kate Mara (coming off of the dreadfully received Fantastic Four reboot as Invisible Woman/Susan Storm), Michael Peña (coming off of the wonderfully received Ant-Man as Luis) and Sebastian Stan (best known as The Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes from Captain America: The Winter Soldier - ridiculously well-received). The Earth cast, led by Jeff Daniels (who, years ago, was in a different kind of Martian movie) is a lot more serious and low-key. Recent Academy Award winner Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years A Slave) plays a character who has a bigger part (and a different first name) in the book but again, for the purposes of an ensemble cast, is spread thin. Sean Bean, I'm convinced, is in this film for the sole purpose of a Lord of the Rings connection. Kristen Wiig is in the film, playing a shrill NASA public relations officer and doesn't get much to do. The standout for me is this new girl named Mackenzie Davis playing the meek Mindy Park. I don't know much of her, but I'd like to see her in more stuff; she's on the AMC show "Halt and Catch Fire", a show I don't watch. Donald Glover, a guy who'd kill to be a Marvel actor (he so desperately wants to be Spider-Man but I honestly believe he'd be perfect for The Prowler/Hobie Brown) plays the whiz kid who out-thinks all of NASA in their attempts to bring Watney home. He gets a standout scene and then pretty much disappears from the rest of the movie.

One of the standout features of the movie is its soundtrack. In both the novel and the movie, Mark Watney makes no reservations about his utter hatred of disco being the only source of music available in what the Ares III team left behind. While the book mentions probably the most famous disco song ever written, "Stayin' Alive", the movie features (among others) "Turn the Beat Around" by Vickie Sue Robinson, "Rock the Boat" by The Hues Corporation, "Waterloo" by ABBA, "Love Train" by The O'Jays (in the Epilogue) and "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor (in the end credits). However, Watney and I share the same favorite song in the film, "Hot Stuff" by Donna Summer (described as the "least disco" of the bunch) and even Watney can't help grooving along with the beat.

After misfires like The Counselor and Exodus: Gods and Kings, Ridley Scott finally gets a crowdpleasing sci-fi movie that will catapult him back in the good graces of pop culture. The Martian has one talented cast and a smart, engaging script that will no doubt get some awards recognition. It's fair to say the long-running curse of "Mars" movies has finally been broken.