Steve Jobs

The Surprise Film of the Year Award may just have to go to Steve Jobs.

Positioned as the Apple version of The Social Network this is a masterwork by Danny Boyle and Michael Fassbender.

Absolutely gripping from start to finish this biopic plays out like a Shakespearean theatre production full of pulsating language and, for us, betters the brilliant Facebook biopic.

Like Birdman before it this is largely set backstage at three key product launches in Jobs' career and charts his rise and fall with his colleagues and in his personal life.

As Fassbender puts it in the film: "It's like before every key moment in my working life everyone goes to the pub, gets drunk and decides to tell me how they really feel." (sic)

Each section is shot in equivalent stock of the era with each actor ageing realistically and the fabulous score following suit.

As Empire eloquently put it in their review of the film Jobs was a man who knew exactly how humans could, and should, interface with technology but not with each other and this positions that theory in heartbreaking fashion as his attitude towards his daughter and her mother alter as the film progresses. His colleagues too fall halfway between love and hate as his singular vision drives Apple, and therefore them, to become one of the world's technological powerhouses.

Each actor is on top form: Fassbender deserves the inevitable Oscar tips after what has been a great year for him, likewise Seth Rogen plays straight as well as Zach Galifinakis did in Birdman and Kate Winslet and Jeff Daniels excel in supporting roles.

Boyle's camera is steady throughout, non-obtrusive on the eye but floating through corridors and round rooms almost in homage to Birdman's constant motion.

Perfect from start to finish; you won't want this to end.

5 stars *****