July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

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jOBS, the biopic of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs — whose ruthlessness and design-savvy created his celebrity — debuted at the Sundance Film Festival this weekend, and the reviews are mixed.

The biopic stars Ashton Kutcher as Jobs and Josh Gad as Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. It will be released to the public on April 19, though you can watch a minute-long teaser now.

Reviewers are going back and forth on the actors’ portrayals versus the historical accuracy of the movie. Kutcher got everyone talking about his physical likeness to Jobs after the movie team released a photo of Kutcher’s Jobs sitting next to a “THINK” post. According to reviews, he pulls off Jobs well, capturing his mannerisms and tonality in the movie itself.

But while the actors might make you believe, Jobs-fans may call the movie out for not sticking to Apple canon.

Another point raised: It seems the movie heralds Jobs for his work but might over-exaggerate how meaningful certain moments were — such as when he unveiled the iPod — to accent his significance.

Let’s take a look at the reviews:

The Next Web on the accuracy of Kutcher’s portrayal:

“Kutcher’s Jobs has the hunched, rolling gait of the man, and the kinetic nature of his hands. His flat, piercing stare and clipped delivery works almost perfectly throughout. Even if you’ve spent an enormous amount of time listening to or watching Jobs, you’ll be impressed with his overall performance. There were a few moments where he dropped out of cadence in his speech and such, but the impression that I got on the whole is that he got it right.

I know that his performance as Jobs will get a lot of attention, especially as there are many alive who still have their memories of him fresh in mind. But it’s a fantastic, if not wholly factually accurate, performance by Kutcher.”

CNET on how jOBS doesn’t show enough Steve Jobs grit:

“Only Gad, as Wozniak, gets a scene standing up to the great man — as Woz quits Apple, he criticizes Jobs for losing his humanity amid a single-minded pursuit of making great products. It’s something even Jobs’ staunchest admirers have to wrestle with, and the film could have used more of that.

Others will write of the things “jOBS” omits, gets wrong, or simply avoids. My primary disappointment was in how shallow the film felt, given the extensive historical record. In the early days Jobs’ co-workers had to wrestle with a man who smelled bad, who cried often, who yelled constantly, who missed deadlines, who overspent his budget by millions. … There is great drama to be found in all that, but it is not to be found in the saccharine ‘jOBS.’”

The Verge on jOBS’ set and costumes success:

“The production and costume design are astounding, and it’s not just Kutcher wearing nearly every iconic Jobs outfit (the suspenders, the bowtie, the turtleneck, etc) throughout the film. The filmmakers were able to use Jobs’s childhood home — the legendary “garage” where Apple started — and it really sells the first third of the movie to see it around the iconic location. The offices and fashion play to each era — big glasses, bigger hair, slacks worn high — even if it isn’t necessarily what the individual actually wore in real life. Woz may never have worn that tie, but someone in the 70s did.

The movie is littered with small details of lore that should make Apple fanatics happy.”

Hollywood Reporter on the omission of important details:

“By accentuating the sweet spot that combines the Apple origin story with the drama inherent in Jobs’ struggles to grow and maintain control of his company, Whiteley and Stern [screenwriter and director respectively] get the best return on investment — but at the expense of some important details, including his initial introduction to Wozniak and any specifics about Woz’s personal history. As the two are developing the first Apple computers, the omission of discussion about the operating-system software needed to run the machines also is puzzling.”

jOBS stars Ashton Kutcher as, of course, Steve Jobs, and Josh Gad as Steve Wozniak, telling “the story of Steve Jobs’ ascension from college dropout into one of the most revered creative entrepreneurs of the 20th century,” as the movies’ producers have framed it on IMDB. Matthew Modine has a small role as well, playing ill-fated Apple CEO John Scully.

The jOBS movie, following on the footsteps of The Social Network just two years ago, shows the increased importance technology and those who create it have in popular culture. No one made a movie about Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard in the ’80s or IBM founder Thomas Watson — who led IBM for a staggering 42 years — in the ’70s.

Of course, it helps that Steve Jobs was crazily charismatic. Even though Bill Gates is one of the richest people in the world, and now one of the foremost philanthropists of all time, no one has ever produced a biopic of the Microsoft founder.

While most of us will have to wait almost three months to see the movie, the worldwide premiere is actually in just three days at the Sundance film festival in Park City, Utah. (If you’re attending and want to provide a review for VentureBeat, let me know.)

Meanwhile, the rest of us will just have to settle for a one-minute clip released to Entertainment Week this morning.

Source: Entertainment Weekly

Jobs and Wozniak arguing in an underground HP parking lot

Image credit: jOBS movie

Hollywood writer Aaron Sorkin says Steve Jobs was a complicated guy, but knows that he will write the late Apple co-founder as if  he was “making [his] case to god for why [he] should be let into heaven.”

Sorkin, who is known for having characters walk with purpose while simultaneously engaged in witty repartee, sat down at the D10 conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. to chat about his upcoming movie about Steve Jobs.

“I’m at the earliest possible stage with Steve Jobs,” said Sorkin at the conference. “It’s a process of procrastination where you try to figure out what the movie is going to be about … I’m going to identify the point of fiction that appeals to me and dramatize that.”

Sorkin, who just wrapped up a fictional show that takes place behind-the-scenes in the news industry, is adapting Walter Isaacson’s biography of Jobs, which was hugely popular after Jobs’ passing from cancer in October 2011. There will be obvious challenges turning the biography into a movie, and Sorkin admits he had reservations taking the project on. He explained that it “was a little like writing about the Beatles. There are so many people out there who now so much about him … I just saw a minefield of disappointment.”

Sorkin has taken an interest in the drama that often unfolds in Silicon Valley, and adapted it to the big screen. He first did this with The Social Network, a movie based on the life of Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. The drama in that flick surrounded the ownership of Facebook, a debate that has led to many lawsuits between Mark Zuckerberg and others who claim they helped him create the now public company. Sorkin wound up winning an Oscar for writing the screenplay.

“I had one experience writing about the anti-hero and that was The Social Network,” he said. “[Jobs is] an extremely complicated guy. Mark Zuckerberg is an extremely complicated guy as well … I can’t judge the character. He has to, for me, be a hero.”

The actor that will eventually play Jobs has to be a smart person. Sorkin explained that there are a number of things you can fake as an actor, but intelligence isn’t one of them. In classic Sorkin style, the actor will also have to be a fast talker. But even if his movie is a flop, he believes people are naturally interested in the man who made Apple what it is today.

“I think that what has captured the public’s attention about Steve Jobs … is that he made things. I think nowadays we’re being told a lot that as Americans, our future is somehow in service. That the days of making cars and railroads and big buildings … that those days are over. Steve Jobs said no, they’re not. We still make things that people want. And we do that in Hollywood too.”