Steve Jobs
Universal Pictures | Release Date: October 9, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
82
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 45 Critic Reviews
Positive:
41
Mixed:
3
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Total FilmJamie GrahamNov 9, 2015
I don’t want people to dislike me. I’m indifferent to if they dislike me,” says Jobs. Well, this won’t be for everyone but it dazzles. Markedly better than Ashton Kutcher’s Jobs… Read full review
100
EmpireIan NathanNov 2, 2015
Really smart people on a really smart person: Fassbender, Winslet, Sorkin and Boyle await Oscar nominations. But for all its relevance and grandeur, Steve Jobs is ridiculously entertaining. You might say, user-friendly. Read full review
100
Washington PostAnn HornadayOct 15, 2015
Propelled by an ingenious script by Aaron Sorkin, given vibrance and buoyancy by director Danny Boyle, Steve Jobs is a galvanizing viewing experience. Read full review
100
SalonAndrew O'HehirOct 8, 2015
It’s a moving and magnificently crafted story about a person named Steve Jobs who was brought low by pride and arrogance and then redeemed by love. It might be a story that mirrors our dreams and desires, which is what the real Steve Jobs did too, and in that sense maybe it’s indirectly about him. It’s definitely not about a guy who built and sold computers. Read full review
100
Rolling StonePeter TraversOct 8, 2015
If you're going to interpret on film the searching mind of an indisputable genius, it helps not to make too many dumbass moves. On that basis, score a triumph for Steve Jobs, written, directed and acted to perfection, and so fresh and startling in conception and execution that it leaves you awed. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranOct 8, 2015
Steve Jobs is a smart, hugely entertaining film that all but bristles with crackling creative energy. What it is not is a standard biopic. Read full review
100
The New York TimesA.O. ScottOct 8, 2015
Steve Jobs is a rich and potent document of the times, an expression of both the awe that attends sophisticated new consumer goods and the unease that trails in the wake of their arrival.... Mostly, though, it is a formally audacious, intellectually energized entertainment, a powerful challenge to the lazy conventions of Hollywood storytelling and a feast for connoisseurs of contemporary screen acting. Read full review
91
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezSep 6, 2015
A deliriously quick-footed and orchestrally pitched character study, Steve Jobs is an ambitious, deeply captivating portrait of the high cost of genius. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzOct 15, 2015
What Boyle and Sorkin are after here is a portrait of Jobs, not a photograph. And they have succeeded in making one, in wildly entertaining fashion. Read full review
90
NPRBob MondelloOct 13, 2015
The film's tension comes partly from a raft of terrific performances — everyone's good, and Fassbender's stellar — and partly from juxtaposing Jobs' public and private personas. He could make cheering audiences believe he was changing the world, but backstage ... not so much. Read full review
90
Screen DailyGraham FullerOct 5, 2015
It’s no discredit to Steve Jobs, Danny Boyle’s propulsive and iconoclastic biopic of the digital-revolution visionary who democratised personal computing, that it’s a dispiriting study of capitalistic self-aggrandisement – one that leaves a sense of unease despite its ironically upbeat ending. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthySep 6, 2015
Racing in high gear from start to finish, Danny Boyle’s electric direction tempermentally complements Sorkin’s highly theatrical three-act study. Read full review
90
VarietyJustin ChangSep 6, 2015
Writer Aaron Sorkin, director Danny Boyle and star Michael Fassbender have given their subject the brilliant, maddening, ingeniously designed and monstrously self-aggrandizing movie he deserves. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesOct 14, 2015
Sorkin smashes the cradle-to-grave biopic mold with Steve Jobs. R.I.P., I guess. It’s called a mold for a reason. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonOct 22, 2015
As original and risk-taking as its subject, Steve Jobs will make you think differently about an American icon. Read full review
88
Movie NationRoger MooreOct 21, 2015
It strips away the myth and icon and reveals Jobs for the hustler-huckster he was, just a smooth, smiling turtleneck, trying to sell us something. In many ways, his film makes all other Jobs movies unnecessary. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 15, 2015
Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and director Danny Boyle aren’t interested in offering another re-enactment of the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction story. They have something more ambitious in mind. Their goal is to illustrate the tyranny of genius and how a “great mind” doesn’t always mean a “great person.” Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperOct 13, 2015
As can be said of most Apple products, it’s a wonder to behold — despite a few irritating glitches. Read full review
88
USA TodayBrian TruittOct 8, 2015
Sorkin's script is clever and knowing — at one point late in the proceedings, Jobs wonders aloud why “everybody gets drunk” and takes him to task five minutes before every event. It's a small moment that breaks the fourth wall in the slightest and smartest of ways. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireOct 8, 2015
This a super-Sorkiny Aaron Sorkin script — full of the kind of well-timed zingers and clever turns of phrase that never occur to us in real life. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerOct 9, 2015
For most of its two hours it’s brainy, high-speed entertainment, but the filmmakers are not quite as smart as they think they are. For all its flash and hypertalk, Steve Jobs is an old-school movie in new-style camouflage. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerOct 7, 2015
The tension between Boyle’s restless energy and Sorkin’s tendency to run in place drives the movie. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnSep 6, 2015
While at times too over-the-top and operatic for its own good, those same flawed ingredients echo the rough edges that define the movie's iconic subject. Read full review
80
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottOct 29, 2015
Boyle, Sorkin and company might not have invented the iPhone or changed the way people viewed technology, but it does something the real Steve Jobs had trouble doing: It offers a genuine peek at the man behind the turtleneck, and in the process finds a way to connect with its viewers. Read full review
80
The New YorkerAnthony LaneOct 12, 2015
The dichotomy turns out to be a false one: whether you revile him or genuflect before him, you are still implying that the guy demands and deserves our fascination. What Sorkin and Boyle have to offer is not a warts-and-all portrait but the suggestion that there is something heroic about a wart. Read full review
80
SlateDana StevensOct 9, 2015
It's all too neatly staged to make for dynamic cinema, even if the dialogue does crackle with a delicious nastiness. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternOct 8, 2015
In many ways the film reflects its hero’s brilliance. It’s a scintillating construction, though one that sometimes feels like a product launch in its own right. Read full review
80
Village VoiceNick SchagerOct 5, 2015
This is a swift and searing attempt to pull back the curtain on Jobs and, in the process, investigate the relationship between the myth and the man. Read full review
80
Time OutDavid EhrlichSep 6, 2015
Steve Jobs the movie is a lot like Steve Jobs the person: astonishingly brilliant whenever it’s not breaking your heart. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallOct 22, 2015
Danny Boyle's movie is meticulously crafted to artful specifications, written in Aaron Sorkin's torrential style and acted to perfection by a superb ensemble. Yet like Jobs' NeXT Cube in 1988, there's one obvious question that isn't satisfactorily answered: What does it do? Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaOct 16, 2015
Is Steve Jobs a great film? I don't think so. It's an achievement, certainly, full of Sorkin flourishes, breathtaking and brilliant one-liners that reveal a lot about the characters who deliver them. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 15, 2015
To be sure, Steve Jobs has its own integrity as the story of the young innovator, but it’s a little like making a movie about Thomas Edison and stopping somewhere between the phonograph and the lightbulb. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle SmithOct 7, 2015
Steve Jobs is a tale of two men, not one: A more accurate, not to say wittier, title would have been “Steve Jobs and Aaron Sorkin.” Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyOct 7, 2015
As sharp and slick as Steve Jobs is, it ends up feeling more interested in entertainment than enlightenment. Read full review
75
HitfixGregory EllwoodSep 6, 2015
Sorkin’s voice dominates the discourse and the film rarely has a chance to catch its collective breath. While you have to give the duo credit for attempting an unconventional structure, it’s a choice that arguably only works thanks to the contributions of a stellar ensemble. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinOct 9, 2015
The first act is a thing of beauty and the second, good enough. Shame about that third act, though, and the ending that retroactively diminishes everything that preceded it. Read full review
68
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeOct 8, 2015
A movie that feels like a series of beautifully and meticulously crafted tiles in a half-finished mosaic; you can admire the pieces but still come away feeling like you’ve been deprived of the whole. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianJeff BakerOct 15, 2015
It's exhausting, impressionistic, and ultimately hollow, extraordinarily well-acted but not nearly as relevant as "The Social Network." Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrOct 15, 2015
We don’t go to Hollywood movies for hard facts, but it’d be nice to think we’re getting some kind of truth with our entertainment. Maybe Aaron Sorkin thinks we can’t handle the truth. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsOct 15, 2015
The movie, a formidable technical and design achievement, has everything going for it except a sense of Jobs' inner life. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezOct 15, 2015
Steve Jobs, which by many accounts plays loose with the facts, is at its weakest when it tries to humanize its protagonist. Read full review
60
The GuardianBenjamin LeeSep 6, 2015
Sorkin’s heavily heightened sense of drama works best when the stakes are equally aligned but, despite the film constantly informing you of just how incredibly important everything all is, it’s disappointingly difficult to truly care about what’s taking place. Read full review
50
TimeIsaac Guzmán Oct 11, 2015
What’s most difficult about Sorkin’s intricate fantasy is not acknowledging Jobs’ darkness, but setting aside all hope of seeing the real man who inspired it. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineSteve MacfarlaneOct 5, 2015
The screenwriter's signature verbal-diarrhetic dialogue allows for a nonstop blaring of actorly chops that, like the movie at large, is nothing if not committed. Read full review
25
ObserverRex ReedOct 7, 2015
There’s no humanity in this grave disappointment that justifies the passion his fans feel for the father of the iMac. Steve Jobs and all of the characters around him fail to come to life in any absorbing fashion. They’re not real people; they’re all hashtags. Read full review
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