NEW YORK (Reuters) - A weekend screening of Steve Jobs, a biopic of
the Apple co-founder, drew high praise from some reviewers and
suggestions that actor Michael Fassbender could be an Oscar contender
for his portrayal of Jobs.
While the positive reviews were not unanimous, Variety was impressed.
The website said Fassbender, director Danny Boyle and screenwriter
Aaron Sorkin, gave Jobs "the brilliant, maddening, ingeniously designed
and monstrously self-aggrandizing movie he deserves". It described the
movie as a "terrific actors' showcase and an incorrigibly entertaining
ride that looks set to be one of the fall's early must-see attractions".
It also listed Fassbender as a "no-brainer best actor Oscar contender".
The Hollywood Reporter said the movie is "clearly positioned as one
of the prestige titles of the fall season and will be high priority
viewing for discerning audiences around the world".
A New York
Times blog said the audience "responded warmly" to the world premeire of
the movie at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado on Saturday.
Boyle's little-known drama, Slumdog Millionaire, premiered at
Telluride in 2008 before going on to win awards at the Toronto
International Film Festival and on Oscar night.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak said he was impressed with Steve Jobs
the movie, according to Deadline Hollywood. The site quoted Wozniak as
saying that he felt he was "actually watching Steve Jobs and the others"
rather than actors and that he gave "full credit to Danny Boyle and
Aaron Sorkin for getting it so right".
Indiewire said the movie would "factor in the Oscar race", and that
Fassbender and Kate Winslet, who plays Macintosh marketing chief Joanna
Hoffman, "dazzle with their fleet-tongued performances, unlike anything
they have done before". Seth Rogen plays Wozniak.
The Guardian,
however, gave a more mixed review, suggesting the movie would mostly
appeal to "the Apple geek". It said that Steve Jobs was "Boyle's best
film in years" and that "Fassbender excels". But while the movie
"appears to be admirably unsentimental in its portrayal of Jobs, by the
end we're getting close to Apple-sponsored hero iWorship", it said.
The Chicago Tribune, also not totally won over, said the movie was
"never less than entertaining visually, but a little toothless
dramatically".
An email crossfire between former Sony co-chairman Amy Pascal and
producer Scott Rudin over the biopic was revealed from a hacking attack
on the studio last year. The movie finally moved to Universal. It is
expected to be shown at the New York Film Festival before it is released
in the United States on Oct 9.
Indiewire said Boyle would return to the editing room to put the
finishing touches on the movie before the New York screening. The
Telluride screening occurred a day after the opening of Steve Jobs: The
Man In The Machine, a widely reviewed documentary directed by Alex
Gibney.

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