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Movies & TV Movies & TV Reviews

Jobs

JOBS (Joshua Michael Stern). 127 minutes. Opens Friday (August 16). For venues and times, see listings. Rating: NN


Jobs is like The Social Network without social commentary, character development or much fun. It’s essentially a bullet-point biopic of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

The titan of industry (Ashton Kutcher) starts out as a smug hippy prick who ambles barefoot on campus, condescends to a concerned professor (a blip cameo by James Woods), drops acid and dreams of a glorious future while Peace Train pointlessly bobs up and down in the sound mix.

He bitches about his lazy colleagues at Atari before exploiting friends’ ideas and building the first Apples in his dad’s garage. He’s repeatedly informed that he’s an asshole and he smells – but also that he’s some kind of genius. Initial thrilling success is followed by the humiliation of being pushed out of his own company, but he’s eventually restored to his rightful capitalist glory.

It’s easy to see why ambitious filmmakers might be drawn to the Jobs story. The ruthless, bullying “fruitarian” of Matt Whiteley’s script could be compared to any maverick New Hollywood visionary: he wants untold resources at his disposal without any financial accountability.

But the film’s Jobs is devoid of charisma. Almost all the dialogue is leaden exposition, the cutting and camera movement feel superfluous, as if director Joshua Michael Stern were grasping at straws to generate excitement, and Kutcher’s hissy fits, shaking and near-crying as he punches out lines like “We. Don’t. Stop. Innovating!” fail to amuse.

At least the film is so busy that it clips along. Appropriate, since Jobs was, after all, obsessed with speed.

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