I am way more invested in this year's Academy Awards show coming up on Sunday than I have been since, well probably since ever.
I have seen 7 of the 8 films that are up for Best Picture, and have tried to catch as many of the other films that have actors up or the main acting awards as well.
On a long flight home yesterday I finally caught the Steve Jobs movie that features Oscar nominated acting performances from Michael Fassbender as Jobs, and Kate Winslet as Apple's marketing head Joanna Hoffman. I loved the movie, probably more than most, and I would not be surprised at all if Fassbender gets the upset and wins Best Actor over everyone's favorite choice this year, Leonardo DiCaprio from The Revenant.
There was a great line in the Jobs film that stuck out for me as being one worth remembering. In the most tense scene of the film which showed the Apple board meeting and showdown between Jobs and then-Apple CEO John Sculley (which culminated in Apple's board voting to oust Jobs), Fassbender (as Jobs) hits Sculley with this killer burn:
Artists lead, and hacks ask for a show of hands.
Jobs was clearly trying to paint Sculley as a non-innovative, non-creative, corporate suit - and not the kind of person from which amazing ideas and products would stem.
Two minutes later Sculley does indeed ask for a show of hands, (the Apple board vote), and Jobs is shown the exit door from Apple. We all know the rest of the story of course, with Jobs retuning to Apple several years later and saving the company from near insolvency.
Jobs had plenty of flaws, and the film does a decent job of bringing some of these forward, but there can be little argument about how important he was to Apple and more broadly, to our relationship with technology today.
Ok, that is it for me on the movies this year. Go check out Trish McFarlane and I on the HR Happy Hour Show with our Oscars preview where I sadly do not tap Fassbender for Best Actor.
Have a great weekend!