Man… sometimes is so hard to find movies to inspire you, I feel this is specially hard these days with a strange focus in fantasy and over drama taken over current stream of new movies. Sometimes you just want a good ol’ story about a character facing some complications but overcoming them with bravery and some powerful emotional scenes here and there. We want triumph stories that can push us to do better, to keep going forwards towards those elusive paths of life that come to us from time to time. Jobs (2013) is… not one of those movies…

It’s really unfortunate actually, as there are some elements in here that may lead you to believe you’re in for some “push hard and accomplish” sort of story, yet a weak script and plain execution take any chances of finding a really engaging movie. This is more like an overview of a life, some scattered scenes that try to paint some cohesive image about a man lead by his own guts and “being your own boss” attitude towards the creation of an entire empire. I mean, you don’t even understand how he did it by watching the movie. Remember that sequence in “The Social Network” where Mark Zuckerberg explains why Facebook will be so appealing to others, starting with the exclusivity of Harvard into people giving their own information? well in this case none of it is here. Okay, there’s an actual explanation about computer components, given in a brief presentation, but watching the movie we never get to see this often praised smart man who seems to be angry all the time and can only yell orders to others doing some actual work. It seems he actually doesn’t, but is good at making others work for him. Is this his actual genius?

Now, as I said before, the major problem with the movie is that makes an overview of aspects in Steve Job’s life, but doesn’t develops any of them. There’s a particular scene where Steve has a number of successes and other failures, and then his friend Woznick comes to tell him he’s quitting the company. He starts saying awful things at Steve, like he’s alone and that his life must be awful. Yet we see nothing to suggest Steve is having a hard time. Worst thing is, the scene is supposed to be super emotional with some strong acting from both actors involved, but how can we be emotionally engaged with it if we don’t know what the hell are they talking about? And you know what? the movie doesn’t try to hide this issue at all, just watch the first sequence of it. Steve Jobs comes out to an audience to show the new iPod. The shots are from far away, as trying not to show the actor’s characterization, then focuses mainly on dumb reactions from public attending, like they get excited or overwhelmed at the most uninspired speech ever… I mean c’mon!

I haven’t watched the other movie about Steve Jobs, maybe it’s better… I don’t know. Thing is, just from watching this one you get the feeling that to be truly successful in life you have to be an asshole, there’s no way around it. Either you yell at others and lie your way though success or you low your head and help the ones that do this to grab a piece of the pie. Is this ho things truly are? I guess you don’t want to know…