December is, for many, a time for celebration and reflection. If you’re lucky enough to have downtime during this busy season, you might be looking for the perfect movie to fill it with.
One of the best ways to pick a movie on a service like Amazon Prime Video, which has so many to choose from, is to pick a movie that you know won’t be there much longer. That’s exactly what we’ve done here. Steve Jobs is leaving Prime Video at the end of the month, and you should definitely make time for it before it does. The movie, which tells the story of the Apple founder in three chapters, is well worth your time. Here’s why.
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Its three-act structure is brilliant
Steve Jobs is split into three sections, each chronicling the launch of a different product. The first chronicles the launch of the Macintosh, the second the launch of the NeXT computer, and the third the launch of the iMac. Each of these acts creates a high-tension atmosphere in which all of the most important people in Jobs’ life want something from him.
The film plays out a bit like a stage play, but director Danny Boyle knows how to shoot it in a way that feels alive and dynamic. In jumping through time to three precise moments in Jobs’ life, the movie maintains a focus that many of these kinds of sprawling biopics totally lack.
Michael Fassbender is remarkable at its center
The movie would not work at all without Michael Fassbender’s brilliant central performance as Jobs. The movie is ultimately about the mind of one of the most brilliant men in the history of computer technology, and Fassbender manages to capture all the ways that Jobs could captivate those around him, even as he also frustrated them with his own failings and shortcomings.
The most surprising things about Steve Jobs might be that, underneath it all, it’s a movie about a man who is way crueler to the people around him than he had to be. Fassbender was nominated for Best Actor for his performance, and after watching the movie, you can understand why.
It’s honest about who Jobs was
There are plenty of biopics about great men that valorize them, recognizing them for all that they contributed to the world. You could certainly make a movie about Steve Jobs that was about his triumphs. What’s much more interesting, though, and what Steve Jobs does so well, is depict a version of the iconic Apple CEO that feels close to the truth.
Jobs is a man obsessed with his work who demands perfection from everyone around him, and is also cruel to both his daughter and the people who work for and love him. He also did a lot of amazing things, and the reality is that both of those things are true.
Steve Jobs is streaming on Amazon Prime Video until January 1, 2025.