Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine

Movies to See Right Now

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Andrew Garfield and Michael Shannon in 99 HOMES
Andrew Garfield and Michael Shannon in 99 HOMES

First things first – the Camera Cinema Club is kicking off its 20th season this weekend, and it’s an absolute MUST for Silicon Valley film lovers.  I explain why in these comments.   I’ve been a Club member since its 2003-04 season. If you love movies and live in Silicon Valley, you need to be in the Camera Cinema Club. Sign up here.

There’s something for everyone in theaters:

  • The Martian – an entertaining Must See space adventure – even for folks who usually don’t enjoy science fiction;
  • Sicario – a dark and paranoid crime thriller about the drug wars.
  • Meet the Patels, a heartwarming crowd-pleaser – a documentary that’s funnier than most fictional comedies. Now hard to find in theaters, it’s worth tracking down.
  • 99 Homes, a riveting psychological drama about the foreclosure crisis with searing performances by Andrew Garfield and Michael Shannon.
  • Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine – Alex Gibney’s anything but reverential documentary on Steve Jobs.

My most recent Stream of the Week is the unforgettable coming of age dramedy Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. It’s available streaming from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play. You will be able to rent it on DVD from Netflix and Redbox on November 3.

This week, Turner Classic Movies brings us two fantastic comedies – two of the very best in cinema history. First, on October 19, there’s My Man Godfrey (1936) – an assembly of eccentric, oblivious, venal and utterly spoiled characters make up a rich Park Avenue family and their hangers-on during the Depression. The kooky daughter (Carole Lombard) brings home a homeless guy (William Powell) to serve as their butler. The contrast between the dignified butler and his wacky employers results in a brilliant screwball comedy that masks searing social criticism that is relevant today. The wonderful character actor Eugene Pallette (who looked and sounded like a bullfrog in a tuxedo) plays the family’s patriarch, who is keenly aware that his wife and kids are completely nuts.

Then on October 21, TCM will present the groundbreaking French comedy La Cage Aux Folles – a daring film in 1978, when few were thinking about same-sex marriage. A gay guy runs a nightclub on the Riviera – and his partner is the star drag queen. The nightclub owner’s beloved son wants him to meet the parents of his intended.  But the bride-to-be’s father is a conservative politician who practices the most severe and judgmental version of Roman Catholicism, so they’re going to have to conceal aspects of their lifestyle. Mad cap comedy ensues, and La Cage proves that broad farce can be heartfelt. Michel Serrault is unforgettable as Albin/Zaza – one of the all-time great comic performances. (La Cage was tepidly remade in 1996 as The Birdcage with Robin Williams, but you want to see the French original.)

Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Serrault in LA CAGE AUX FOLLES
Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Serrault in LA CAGE AUX FOLLES

Movies to See Right Now

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Matt Damon in THE MARTIAN
Matt Damon in THE MARTIAN

Plenty of excellent movie choices in the theaters – and something for everyone:

  • The Martian – an entertaining Must See space adventure – even for folks who usually don’t enjoy science fiction;
  • Sicario – a dark and paranoid crime thriller about the drug wars.
  • Meet the Patels, a heartwarming crowd-pleaser – a documentary that’s funnier than most fictional comedies.  Now hard to find in theaters, it’s worth tracking down.
  • 99 Homes, a riveting psychological drama about the foreclosure crisis with searing performances by Andrew Garfield and Michael Shannon.
  • Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine – Alex Gibney’s anything but reverential documentary on Steve Jobs.
  • The excellent true life crime drama Black Mass with Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton and a brilliant cast.
  • Going Clear: The Prison of Belief, documentarian Alex Gibney’s devastating expose of Scientology, originally shown on HBO and now in theaters.

My Stream of the Week is the unforgettable coming of age dramedy Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.  It’s available streaming from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.  You will be able to rent it on DVD from Netflix and Redbox on November 3.

On October 12, Turner Classic Movies presents the groundbreaking French noir Elevator to the Gallows(1958). A thriller about the perfect crime that goes awry, it still stands up today, .It’s one of my Overlooked Noir. Elevator to the Gallows is such a groundbreaking film, you can argue that it’s the first of the neo-noir. It’s difficult now to appreciate the originality of Elevator the Gallows; but in 1958, no one had seen a film with a Miles Davis soundtrack or one where the two romantic leads were never on-screen together. Directed by Louis Malle when he was only 24 years old.

On October 15, TCM brings us the 1979 Oscar-winner Harlan County U.S.A. Filmmaker Barbara Kopple embedded herself among the striking coal miners and got amazing footage – including of herself threatened and shot at. Also one of my 5 Great Hillbilly Movies.

HARLAN COUNTY, USA
HARLAN COUNTY, USA

STEVE JOBS: THE MAN IN THE MACHINE – anything but reverential

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The first two-thirds of Alex Gibney’s documentary Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine provides us with remarkable insight into the personal life of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.  We see plenty of evidence that Jobs was obsessively driven, a marketing genius, consumed by self-absorption and a nasty bully.

Gibney brings us an interview with the mother of Jobs’ first daughter (who he initially refused to acknowledge).  We also hear from their roommate (and presumably Apple’s #3 employee), who articulates the movie’s theme:

How much of an asshole do you need to be, to be successful?

There’s no question that Jobs qualifies as a jerk of singular proportions – grudgingly agreeing to $500/month in child support at the moment his wealth zoomed to $200 million.  And calculating the IPO stock awarded to his former roommate (“How about I give him zero?”).

We hear from the daughter herself (off-camera), with whom Jobs eventually kindled a relationship.  And we hear from the members of the executive team responsible for Apple’s resurgence, including the guys who brought us the iPod and iPhone.  We do not see Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak or the family from Jobs’ second marriage.

How did he get to be so driven?  There are insights in what molded him, especially his feelings about his adoption.  What made him a genius?  Not so much on that one.

In the final third of the film, Gibney piles on.  But it’s not a shock to hear about a Silicon Valley CEO enriching himself by back-dating stock options or exploiting Chinese workers. It ‘s more telling to find out Jobs reveled in parking in handicapped spaces.

There’s a major Hollywood biopic about Jobs coming out in just two weeks:  Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs, starring Michael Fassbender in the titular role.

Alex Gibney is one our very, very best documentarians. He won an Oscar for Taxi to the Dark Side, and he made the superb Casino Jack: The United States of Money, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Elliot Spitzer, Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God and Going Clear: The Prison of Belief.  Man in the Machine doesn’t rise to the level of those films, but it’s worthwhile to those already interested in its subject.

Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine is in theaters and also available streaming from Amazon, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play, and, of course, iTunes.