7/27/2019 Portrait of the Artist Behind Apple

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Portrait of the Artist Behind Apple

ByMANOHLA DARGIS

It would driveSteve Jobsnuts to know that the new movie about his life has all the sexappeal of a PowerPoint presentation. It isnt only that PowerPoint has becomesynonymous with the dry, dreary, droning of corporate meetings or that its anapplication developed by Microsoft, itself a favorite target of Jobs. (The only problemwith Microsoft, he said, is they just have no taste. Also: They just make really third-rate products.) Jobs, who died in 2011 at 56 from complications of pancreatic cancer,thought of himself as an artist, one who, in talking about the design of the Macintosh,said, Great art stretchesthe taste, it doesnt follow tastes.

The historical record is all thats stretched in Jobs, which starsAshton Kutcherandwas directed by Joshua Michael Stern. Compression and omissions are part of anybiography. So its to be expected that a two-hour movie about one of the most importantpublic figures in recent times leaves out a lot, including famous feuds, forgottencolleaguesand even significant business ventures. The point isnt that there are gaps;the point is what and who have been left out. Its understandable that a movie thatconcentrates on Jobss earlier years would overlook his involvement with Pixar, whichhecapitalizedin 1986; given the filmmakers difficulties dealing withhis difficulties itsalso understandable that they slide over a little player called the Xerox Corporation.

The story of Jobs visiting Xeroxs Palo Alto research center in 1979 and realizing that thecompany was, as he put it, sitting on a gold mine, is anoft-repeatedfoundationaltale,partly because he appropriated some of Xeroxs ideas. It was during this visit, he latersaid, that he could see what the future of computing was destined to be. In the movie

this epiphanic moment seems to occur earlier, during an acid trip. Its the early 1970sand Steve, whos dropped out of college, is bumming around, usually barefoot. One dayhe and two friends, Chrisann Brennan (Ahna OReilly) and Daniel Kottke (Lukas Haas),go on a lysergically enhanced picnic that culminates with Steve drifting into a field and,as the camera twirls around him and the sun shines upon him, throwing his arms opento the infinite.

Before long, Steve has embraced his destiny, hooked up with Steve Wozniak (Josh Gad,delivering a sympathetic, sensitive performance) and is staring into a differentimmensity: the Apple computer and the technological revolution that it helped bringabout. Things move quickly for Steve, who one minute is cobbling together the first

Apple in his familys garage and the next is crunching numbers with an investor, MikeMarkkula (Dermot Mulroney). There are good, bad, happy, sad times, mostly with guys(women barely register), though it all gets heavier after Steve starts driving a Porscheand shacks up in a mansion with only an Einstein poster for company, a trajectoryechoed in the soundtrack: Lifes Been Good, Roll With the Changes, You Can Do(Whatever).

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7/27/2019 Portrait of the Artist Behind Apple

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