Jane Heller

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author

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Movie Night: “Steve Jobs”

October 24, 2015

Steve Jobs: The Movie

Let me just get it off my chest without any preamble: I hated this movie. I hated it so much I was tempted to trash all my Apple devices as soon as I got home.

I had no expectation that I would walk out of the theater thinking Steve Jobs was a swell guy. By all accounts, he was a prick as well as a marketing genius, and the film, based on Walter Isaacson’s bestselling book, captured his prickdom in all its ignominy. No, my problem with the movie was the movie. Aaron Sorkin has been a brilliant screenwriter over the course of his career – from “A Few Good Men” and “Moneyball” to “The West Wing” and, one of my favorite films in recent memory, “The Social Network.” His snappy dialogue and “walk and talk” sequences are legendary. But somewhere in the development process of “Steve Jobs,” Sorkin must have been allowed to hold the movie and its director, Danny Boyle, hostage. The result is Sorkin on steroids – a never-ending series of scenes in which Jobs, his marketing director Joanna, and Lisa, the daughter he refused to acknowledge as his own until late in the film, argue. Oh, wait. Jobs also argues with Woz, his old partner, and John Sculley, his old boss. Each of these arguments occurs directly before or soon after the launch of a new product, and each ends with Jobs staring at the person he’s just insulted as if nothing has happened. Nearly the entire movie takes place backstage or on stage in whatever venue Jobs is making his presentation. We hardly see him at home or doing regular people sorts of things. He’s an entity that exists to present products and receive applause for his creations, which is fine except that it has the effect of making the movie an exercise in claustrophobia.

Reviewers have praised “Steve Jobs,” in part, for its unusual structure – i.e. it doesn’t follow the usual chronology of a Hollywood bio-pic and there are no flashbacks or time cuts to provide background or depth of character. All fine and good. I like films that take chances or I wouldn’t adored last year’s “Birdman.” But to sit there for two hours listening to otherwise great actors like Michael Fassbender and Kate Winslet speechifying Sorkin dialogue made my eyes glaze over. Bottom line: I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

 

Filed Under: Mainly Jane, Movies, Popular culture Tagged With: Aaron Sorkin, Danny Boyle, Jeff Daniels, Kate Winslet, Michael Fassbender, Seth Rogen, Steve Jobs

What I Read, Watched and Ate: Favorites of Summer 2015

September 9, 2015

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I know, I know. I could have posted a pic of late summer tomatoes, which have been luscious here in CT. Or corn on the cob, fish on the grill, a lobster roll or an ice cream cone. Instead, I gave you a Cobb salad. Big deal, you think. But it’s not just any Cobb. The one above was a creation of one of my new favorite places, Kingsley Tavern in Kent. It’s made of really fresh romaine, avocado, blue cheese, tomatoes, hard-boiled egg, celery, chicken and – drum roll – the crispiest, most delicious bacon I’ve ever tasted, all dressed in a light, tangy vinaigrette. I craved a salad on a hot steamy night recently, and Kingsley’s Cobb delivered.

But there were many treats of summer of the edible variety: the grilled prawns at Purdy’s Farmer & the Fish in North Salem, the swordfish at Terra Sole in Ridgefield, the chocolate tasting dessert at Arethusa Al Tavolo, the blueberry pie from the Bridgewater Village Store. To say I ate well this summer would be an understatement.

I was a book glutton too. I devoured novel after novel over the past few months, and while I didn’t love every single one, I did love reading in a joyous, leisurely way. Among my favorite novels were: Days of Awe by Lauren Fox, Mermaids in Paradise by Lydia Millet, Among the Ten Thousand Things by Julia Pierpont, Hausfrau by Jill Alexander Essbaum, Disclaimer by Renee Knight, Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll, The Daylight Marriage by Heidi Pitlor and Department of Speculation by Jenny Offill. I’m looking forward to a whole crop of fall books.

In addition to sports on TV, classic movies on TCM and non-stop news on CNN (it was the summer of Trump, after all), I belatedly discovered Weeds and binge watched the Showtime series with abandon. What great writing, not to mention the performances by Mary-Louise Parker and Elizabeth Perkins. I also went back and re-watched The Affair, also on Showtime, in anticipation of the first episode of Season 2 on October 4th.

I only went to a handful of movies in the theaters this summer, and the few I saw didn’t come close to making a favorites list. “Love and Mercy,” the Beach Boys movie that garnered mostly good reviews, was long and meandering, and though Paul Dano was great and the inside-the-studio stuff was interesting, I was less than enthralled. “Trainwreck,” which I expected to adore because of the hilarious Amy Schumer, wasn’t funny. I don’t know how else to say it. I sat there waiting to laugh and didn’t. And “Ricki and the Flash” was fun in the way it’s always fun to watch Meryl Streep do her thing, but was otherwise forgettable.  I can’t wait for the big Oscar-y movies to open. On my must-see list are “Grandma” with Lily Tomlin,  Aaron Sorkin and Danny Boyle’s “Steve Jobs,” “Black Mass,” the Whitey Bulger story starring Johnny Depp and “Carol” with Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, to name a few.

Bring on fall!

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Food, Mainly Jane, Movies, Popular culture, Sports, Television Tagged With: Black Mass, Days of Awe, Disclaimer, novels, Steve Jobs, summer reading, summer roundup, Trainwreck

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About Jane Heller

Jane Heller is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. Her fourteen breezy, witty novels of romantic comedy and suspense are now entertaining millions of readers around the world, along with her two books of nonfiction.

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