by Friday 25th January marked the premier screening for the biopic “jOBS’ featuring moments before the now deceased Steve Jobs Keynotes. Debuting at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival it’s already felt the wrath of Wozniack who said “it’s totally wrong” and now other reviews are coming in.
My main worry for a film like this is that people are going to be expecting to find out more behind the cultural engima that was Steve Jobs and ‘jOBS’ wont deliver anything more than we already know from autobiographies and those lost TV interviews that crop up. Amazing isn’t is that at the time those interviews were deemed worthless with many segments ending up on the cutting room floor and now the seem to be as precious as gold dust.
I’ll start with the quote that I think sum’s things up nicely without seeing the movie and yes before anyone asks, I am waiting with a positive mental attitude to at least be entertained. What I’m not after is focussing on how much Kutcher looks or act likes Jobs.
The Guardian’s reviewer Ed Gibbs (source)
“provides an overly reverential and saccharine view of a complex man possessed by ambition.”
Gibbs added:
“The results… are mixed. This is far from the bomb some would have envisaged, but neither is it the character illumination one would wish for. Jobs appears so consumed by his work here that little else mattered in his life. That may be true, but we’re left none the wiser as to what made the man tick, beyond what we already know.”
The Daily Telegraph’s Sebastian Doggart (source)
Described it as an “almighty mess” and said: “Where the film completely falls down is in director Joshua Michael Stern’s disastrous decision to cast Ashton Kutcher in the central role.
“The poverty of his skills as a serious actor is on full display. His diction is incoherent. He clumsily signposts every emotion he thinks his character should feel: smug smiles for triumph; exaggerated scowls for disgust; nail-biting for anxiety.”
CNET’s (source)
Casey Newton disagreed that Kutcher was the main problem with jOBS. In his review, Newton says that the script’s “fawning” portrayal of Jobs ignores much of the rich dramatic material of the man’s life, such as his well-documented prediliction for “yelling”, missing deadlines and overspending budgets.
Hollywood Reporter’s review of “jOBS”
A biopic that’s perhaps too respectful of the tech icon’s innovations still remains frequently engaging.
The Hollywood Reporter (source) said Kutcher
“faithfully re-creates some of his character’s physical mannerisms for additional dimensionality.”
Variety (source)
“embodies the sort of bland, go-with-the-flow creative thinking Jobs himself would have scorned.”
Variety were less than impressed and not entirely taken in by someone looking like Steve…
while he both looked the part and tried to imitate Jobs’ mannerisms, “the illusion never fully seizes hold.”
Entertainment Weekly
“surprised, and often riveted, by what a starkly honest portrait it is.”
who also go on to say
“(kutcher) obviously cast because he looks like Jobs, but who bites into the role with his incisors.”
“jOBS” will be released in U.S. theaters April 19 with no date set for a UK release, if there would even be such a thing.
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