Steve Jobs wins film prize, despite ‘unfortunate box office’

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Aaron Sorkin’s Steve Jobs movie is coming to Netflix
Steve Jobs, Master of Magnetism. Wait, that was the other Fassbender movie, wasn't it?
Photo: François Duhamel/Universal Studios

Steve Jobs may have bombed worse than the Power Mac G4 Cube, but that’s not stopping the movie from being lavished with prizes on the film festival circuit — en route to the upcoming Oscars.

This weekend, Steve Jobs actor Michael Fassbender was awarded the International Star prize at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, presented by his Steve Jobs co-star Kate Winslet.

“I believe you have a movie that will stand the test of time,” Fassbender told the audience. He did, however, acknowledge the movie’s dismal earnings by saying that it was, “Unfortunate about the box office figures, but, thank god for [Universal’s big-grossing] Jurassic World.”

In an accompanying Q&A session, Fassbender and Winslet (who played Mac PR guru Joanna Hoffman) explained that they used iPods on set to listen to constant recordings of their real-life characters speaking in order to master the accents.

Recently, Steve Jobs picked up four Golden Globe nominations, and the flick is also likely to get a few nods at the Oscars.

It has, however, been strikingly polarising with critics. While most of the criticism has been blamed on Silicon Valley covering for one of its own, the movie has also been lambasted by select “mainstream” movie outlets. In particular, veteran review Rex Reed recently named it his worst film of 2015, with the (somewhat questionable) review:

“If you’re interested in the rags-to-riches story of the late Steve Jobs, the tech nerd who devoted his life to the digital revolution and self-destructed in the process, then stay away from the cold, bloodless and incomprehensible movie with the cut-the-crap-and-get-to-the-point title Steve Jobs.”

Still, it seems that Steve Jobs may have enough overall positive momentum to keep it riding into Academy Awards season — where it may finally get the post-Oscars financial pick-me-up it so desperately needs.

Source: Entertainment Weekly

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