Critic Todd McCarthy led the Q&A with Boyle, which started on a funny note for a tribute. “You should always try and look forward,” Boyle stated when asked if the clip show had made him reconsider if he would have done any of his previous projects differently. The lively Q&A painted a picture of a young filmmaker and theater director who thought (and still does) that “Apocalypse Now” is the greatest film ever made, and that the label of “MTV filmmaking” was a compliment. Boyle himself defined his style as visceral, but asserted that he thinks his films are mostly made in the editing room; that film is an editing medium most of all.

Speaking of editing, press had been told the previous day that Boyle was working on the final cut of "Steve Jobs" at the time, and even at this World Premiere on Saturday night he stated to the audience that “It isn’t quite finished.” Still, he gushed about the work Michael Fassbender put into his performance. Boyle stated that he didn’t see Fassbender look at the script very much, if at all, on set because of the preparation he had done in advance of shooting. Specifically, he remarked that “[Fassbender] absorbed the script as if he had written it,” which is no small feat considering the nearly 200 pages of dialogue.

Most crucially, Boyle offered his two cents about a project that he didn’t imagine as a straight-forward narrative, but more “the sound of [Jobs’] mind." “It’s more of a gesture film,” he confirmed. “It’s not an impersonation film; no one got any plastic surgery.”

“Steve Jobs” reveals itself pretty quickly to be more than just a standard biopic about the Apple guru, and it’s even better than one might expect for that very reason. It’s an interpretation of Jobs’ life, one that features true characters and events, but one in which evoking the power of Jobs is more important than duplicating him (making the fact that Fassbender doesn't look like Jobs moot). The same can be said for the setting of the film, which frames Jobs as he tries to launch a different product in 1984, 1988 and 1998. These scenes do not take place in Apple headquarters (though there are some flashbacks), but the stage of each unveiling, and the backstage where Jobs’ life threatens to fall apart.