Steve Jobs [2015] is the latest in a long list of Jobs-inspired films, features and documentaries alike. It releases just two years after 2013’s Jobs, which was called inaccurate by many, including Steve Wozniak, who knew Jobs better than almost anyone.
Writer Aaron Sorkin has not escaped the claims of inaccuracy from everyone, but managed to capture the character, the personality of Jobs. “I felt like I was actually watching Steve Jobs”, said Wozniak of the film.
The tension begins as soon as the opening credits do: Jóhann Jóhannsson’s sickening, unnerving soundtrack crawls into your ears, drawing you closer to the screen before the picture even starts. The soundtrack is paired wonderfully with the cinemetography of Roger Deakins, who also worked with Jóhannsson and director Danis Villeneuve in the similarly tense and disturbing production Prisoners (2013). The opening scene finds Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) and her team infiltrating an Arizona home known to be connected to an infamous Mexican kidnapper. The scene is one of many that slowly paces through high-intensity situations, showing the gritty, grimy, violent world of policing the Mexican/US drug world.
A middle-aged husband’s life changes dramatically when his wife asks him for a divorce. He seeks to rediscover his manhood with the help of a new found friend, Jacob, learning to pick up girls at bars.
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Director: Glen Ficarra
Writer[s]: John Requa, Dan Fogelman
Starring: Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone, Analeigh Tipton, Jonah Bobo, Marisa Tomei, Liza Lapira, John Carrol Lynch, Kevin Bacon, Josh Groban
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Typecasting and formulaic film scripts are the most common occurrences in Hollywood. How many times have we seen: the female make-over story? love stories with straight-forward, one-sided occurrences, outcomes, and themes? Steve Carell play a 40-something sad-sack? Ryan Gosling as just a pretty face? The short answer: a ton of times. Another Hollywood production that features most all of those is Crazy, Stupid, Love. But it also features more. A lot more. It takes these commonalities, ideas, themes, and typecasts, and shatters them as the film develops into a new, refreshing take on many different fronts. And that is why it is one of my favorite movies ever, for its laughs, its themes, its style, its writing, and because after six or more viewings so far, I have not come close to tiring of it.
A 20-something supervising staff member of a residential treatment facility navigates the troubled waters of that world alongside her co-worker and longtime boyfriend.
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Director: Destin Cretton
Starring: Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr., Rami Malek
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Short Term 12 is a reincarnation of a short from writer/director Destin Cretton, and it was the film of SXSW 2013 festival, winning both the Grand Jury Narrative Feature Award and the Narrative Audience Award. The film has received loads of award nominations from the indie film industry and is currently sitting at 100% on RottenTomates from the top critics, and now it’s finally available for home viewing.
Rachel is a quick-witted and lovable stay-at-home mom. Frustrated with the realities of preschool auctions, a lackluster sex life and career that’s gone kaput, Rachel visits a strip club to spice up her marriage and meets McKenna, a stripper she adopts as her live-in nanny.
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Director: Jill Soloway
Starring: Kathryn Hahn, Juno Temple, Josh Radnor, Jessica St. Clair, Jane Lynch
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Afternoon Delight was the first film I heard about from Sundance 2013. I follow Josh Radnor on the social medias, and I saw that he was doing this movie, and the trailer caught my eye and attention. It never really got a big release, so it has taken me a year to finally see it, but I’ve never seen Kathryn Hahn in a leading role, and she’s always friggen hilarious, so the wait was worth it.
Bob's Movie Reviews 