jOBS

jOBS – Dir. Joshua Michael Stern (2013)

Here's to the crazy ones…because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

In some small way, Steve Jobs has touched the lives of just about everyone on this planet. Even if you've never owned an Apple product, you've probably, at the very least, taken a call from someone on an iPhone or seen someone walking down the street with those recognizable white earbuds. I must admit to drinking the Apple Kool-Aid as I own an iPod Classic, an iPhone 5S, an iPad2, an iPad Air, and a MacBook Pro.

Billions around the world mourned when Jobs died of complications caused by pancreatic cancer in 2011. Of course, the Hollywood studios were itching to tell his story, part of which was previously depicted in the made-for-TV movie Pirates of Silicon Valley with Noah Wylie as Jobs and Anthony Michael Hall as Bill Gates. Still in development is a script by Aaron Sorkin, which will focus on three pivotal moments in the Jobs' life. Meanwhile, the first to hit the screens is Open Road Films' Jobs, based on a screenplay by newcomer Matt Whiteley with the handsome Ashton Kutcher in the title role.

The film begins in 2001 with Steve Jobs introducing the first-ever iPod at an Apple Town Hall. The story shifts back to 1974 where Jobs has dropped out of Reed College in Portland because he was unable to afford tuition. A kindly professor (James Woods in a throwaway cameo) allows him to audit classes, but Jobs doesn't have a clear cut idea of where his life is headed. After dropping LSD and going on a sojourn to India, Jobs gets a gig working at Atari where he helped to build Breakout, a video game inspired by Pong. Jobs also infuriated colleagues with his overbearing demeanor and poor hygiene (he never wore shoes). While working on the project, Jobs turned to his friend Steve Wozniak (Josh Gad) and was amazed at his pal's new invention, a motherboard that could interface with a television monitor. Wozniak saw it as a cool gadget, Jobs saw the future.

Together, they formed Apple Computer and worked out of the garage of Jobs' parents (John Getz & Lesley Ann Warren). Angel investor Mike Markkula (Dermot Mulroney) was instrumental in providing the startup money the company needed to create the Apple II. At the forefront of the blossoming home computer market, Apple was quickly becoming a superpower and made a lot of people millions when it went public in 1980. Unfortunately, the company's success was also instrumental in Jobs' downfall. The fiercely independent Jobs now had to answer to shareholders and board members. Soon, Jobs finds himself ousted from the company he created. Don't worry, he finds his way back. No spoiler alert necessary.

Jobs never attempts to canonize its subject nor does it try to tear him down. The biopic never strays far from the middle of the road when depicting Jobs' life. He was a bold thinker and created a market for technology people didn't even know they needed. At the same time, he was temperamental and ruthless. Jobs denied stock options for friends like Daniel Kottke (Lukas Haas), who started right there with him in his parents' garage. He even screwed his best pal Wozniak out of a couple thousand dollars. Perhaps, the worst moment comes when Jobs callously dumps his girlfriend after learning she is pregnant. He continued to deny the baby was his for years. Sometime after leaving Apple, Jobs is shown living in a beautiful mansion with a wife, a son, and that very same daughter he ignored. His change of heart is never shown or explained.

That sums up the major problem with Jobs, the film never shows any desire to dig deeper. The sun always shines brightly while director Joshua Michael Stern is content with shooting a young Steve Jobs spinning in a wheat field and glossing over chunks of the story through montages. The soundtrack is littered with gentle pop classics by Cat Stevens and Joe Walsh, which sets the tone for the safe route Jobs takes. Those seeking an edgier alternative will have to wait for Sorkin's version.

Though Kutcher bears a resemblance to the real Steve Jobs and captures the man's physicality, he doesn't have the acting chops to believably deliver the movie's more intense moments. At least, Kutcher has a stacked supporting cast to play off of with character actors such as James Woods, Kevin Dunn, Dermot Mulroney, Ron Eldard, J.K. Simmons as board member Arthur Rock, and Matthew Modine as John Sculley, former CEO of Apple and Pepsi-Cola. Undoubtedly, the best performance belongs to Josh Gad's Steve Wozniak, portrayed as a kind-hearted teddy bear uncomfortable the cutthroat corporate world.

It's ironic that someone who was considered so daring and innovative could have inspired such a bland, innocuous biopic. What a shame that the filmmakers didn't follow Steve Jobs' lead and take a few risks.

Rating: ** (*****)

No Strings Attached

No Strings Attached - Dir. Ivan Reitman (2011)

After unfurling the majority of their high profile releases for the holidays and awards season, studios slowly trickle out the leftovers in the first few months of the new year. You can rest assured that a crappy romantic comedy will always be among the bunch to kick things off on a sour note. In 2009, it was 27 Dresses and Leap Year in 2010. The torrent of bad rom-coms in 2011 opens with No Strings Attached, the flipside to When Harry Met Sally. While Rob Reiner's film posited the question of whether men and women could be friends without sex being involved, No Strings Attached is all about men and women having sex without emotional attachment.

Natalie Portman is Emma, a medical resident working 80 hours a week. Ashton Kutcher is Adam, a production assistant on a Glee-esque TV show. A prologue opens the movie showing how Emma and Adam first met at summer camp and how they would bump into each other every few years. It's a blunt way to tell the audience that these two were destined to be together. One day, Adam gets dumped by his girlfriend for his father (Kevin Kline), an aging sitcom star. In response, Adam gets drunk and somehow wakes up naked in Emma's apartment. They quickly have sex and Emma decides to use Adam on a purely carnal level. He eventually desired a more meaningful relationship, while she is reticent for anything long-term.

Rare is the romantic comedy that is rated R. The script, written by Liz Meriwether, originally began as a raunchy female buddy comedy entitled Fuck Buddies. The screenplay managed to make Hollywood's Black List (a compendium of hot, unproduced scripts) in 2008. However, committee filmmaking rears its ugly head. You can tell the story was rewritten and rewritten to make it more palpable to mainstream audiences. The original version featured the female protagonist describing a sojourn to Napa Valley as a "dick tasting trip." The final film contains just enough of an edge so that the males in the audience aren't too embarrassed about seeing an Ashton Kutcher movie without the words "Dude" and "Where's My Car?" in the title.

Portman has generally avoided these types of films, but seems like she's looking to shed the good girl persona with her recent performances here and in Black Swan. While she brings a bubbly personality and a winning smile to the role, the novelty of a horny, foul-mouthed Portman wears thin because the material isn't particularly funny or genuine. Kutcher is bland through and through, doing nothing memorable whatsoever. Where the leads fail, the supporting cast shines. The movie really belongs to the secondary characters, including Olivia Thirlby as Emma's younger sister and Greta Gerwig and Mindy Kaling from The Office as two of Emma's friends and roommates. Gerwig gets the most substantial role and it's great to see the former matron of the mumblecore movement receiving more high-profile work. Let's hope she isn't forever cast as the kooky best friend (i.e. Judy Greer). Also good is Lake Bell, who displays deft comic timing as a nerdy and talkative co-worker of Adam's.

Hmm…there's an idea for a picture, a story revolving around the tertiary characters in a standard rom-com plot. It would do to romantic comedies what The Other Guys did to the buddy cop movie.

Rating: * ½ (*****)

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day - Dir. Garry Marshall (2010)


As I wrote in my review for New York, I Love You, anthology films can be a mixed bag filled with hits and misses. That isn’t the case with Valentine’s Day, it is a complete and utter miss.

An American knockoff of Love Actually, Valentine’s Day was written by Katherine Fugate (creator of the Lifetime soap Army Wives) and directed by Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman). The film stars a litany of well known actors in a series of storylines set in L.A. and revolving around the titular holiday. The whole thing feels like someone threw together a bunch of half-formed ideas from the cookie cutter bin of rom-com concepts because they couldn’t flesh them out into feature length.

Ashton Kutcher is the central character, a florist who gets dumped by his fiancée, Jessica Alba. His best friend, Jennifer Garner, is dating a doctor (Patrick Dempsey), who turns out to be married. Jessica Biel is a sports agent who bonds with Jamie Foxx, a news reporter, over their mutual distaste for Valentine’s Day. Topher Grace works as a mail room clerk in Biel’s office and begins dating the receptionist, Anne Hathaway, who secretly doubles as a phone sex operator. Julia Roberts is an Army captain who shares a plane seat with Bradley Cooper.

The over bloated cast also includes: Julia’s niece Emma, Hector Elizondo, Shirley MacLaine, Queen Latifah, Eric Dane, Kathy Bates, and Joe Mantegna.

The Taylors, Lautner and Swift, also appear as a couple of high schoolers in love. They’re good-looking, bubbly, and empty headed. That pretty much sums up the entire movie. Everybody in the movie is hot, rich, and somehow keep managing to bump into each other. The interconnected contrivances are a lot like Crash, except with romance instead of racism. They all live in some fantasy world version of Los Angeles completely lacking in traffic, crime, or racial diversity. In Valentine’s Day, the only Mexican in L.A. is George Lopez.

Rating: *