X
- 2020
- PG-13
- IFC Films
- 1 h 42 m
- 2020
- PG-13
- IFC Films
- 1 h 42 m
Summary Brilliant, visionary Nikola Tesla (Ethan Hawke) fights an uphill battle to bring his revolutionary electrical system to fruition, then faces thornier challenges with his new system for worldwide wireless energy. The film tracks Tesla’s uneasy interactions with his fellow inventor Thomas Edison (Kyle MacLachlan) and his patron George West...
Directed By: Michael Almereyda
- 2020
- PG-13
- IFC Films
- 1 h 42 m
- 2020
- PG-13
- IFC Films
- 1 h 42 m
Tesla
67
4.9
Where to Watch
Summary Brilliant, visionary Nikola Tesla (Ethan Hawke) fights an uphill battle to bring his revolutionary electrical system to fruition, then faces thornier challenges with his new system for worldwide wireless energy. The film tracks Tesla’s uneasy interactions with his fellow inventor Thomas Edison (Kyle MacLachlan) and his patron George West...
Directed By: Michael Almereyda
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 30 Critic Reviews
67
67% Positive
20 Reviews
20 Reviews
33% Mixed
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 30 Critic Reviews
67
67% Positive
20 Reviews
20 Reviews
33% Mixed
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Both here and in the real world, Tesla is more legend than man, and we can only ever really comprehend him through that warped lens. Almereyda understands this fundamental hurdle in the biopic formula, and leans into it with refreshing candor.
It's rebellious within an era of restraint, bathing Tesla in glowing pastel shades in a time of mahogany, leather, and steam.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 25 User Ratings
4.9
28% Positive
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
40% Mixed
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
32% Negative
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 25 User Ratings
4.9
28% Positive
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
40% Mixed
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
32% Negative
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
This movie is absolutely brilliant! The life and personality of one of the most extraordinary men ever born is depicted on the big screen with visionary madness and yet historical accuracy by a Michael Almereyda in state of grace. I just loved the theatre-like feeling, the painted landscapes instead of the natural ones, the breaking of the forth wall by the narrator voice (the lovely Eve Hewson), with her laptop and Google searches. A convincing Rebecca Dayan impersonates the sensual, hypnotic beauty of Sarah Bernhardt (so gorgeous when she's recording her voice with a gramophone!), Ethan Hawke is absolutely perfect in the role of Tesla, a clumsy albatross among people (so well symbolised by the skating scene), exquisite mind when let free to imagine and create. Almereyda surpassed himself after the already excellent Marjorie Prime (and we meet again Lois Smith, here in a small cameo as the Grand Dame).
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Bizarre, bewitching film.
Amidst all his meta tricks — the winky callouts to Wikipedia, the deliberately kitsch sets and incongruous soundtrack — Tesla’s own story ultimately fades; a small, bright light lost in the bigger spectacle.
There’s a playfulness and a romanticism to the technique—a way of placing the characters both within and without history—that elevates Tesla from being a snarky art installation to something, presumably like Tesla himself, with a soul.
It inadvertently puts Hawke in the position of having to carry a film that's more of a series of half-formed notions, some intriguing, others ill-advised, and a few verging perilously close to cute.
Almereyda lays tracks to take Tesla in a dozen wild directions. . . . Yet, having ordered the audience onboard, Almereyda doesn’t go anywhere with the gambit.
The world wasn't benevolent to Nikola Tesla during his lifetime, but nowadays he has become quite popular, although in many cases this is due to Elon Musk but hey, if he gets the attention for it then all the better. Remember that even David Bowie himself played him.
The most notable element here is of course Ethan Hawke, who provides a sober but intense performance, nevertheless, part of that credit should go to director Michael Almereyda who with Tesla delivers a film that while it doesn't do justice entirely to the name and legacy of the visionary inventor, he doesn't do things wrong either.
It's certainly a film with a certain relaxed touch in its tone but it's also visually claustrophobic. This is because it was filmed almost entirely indoors and a lot of those moments by candlelight. Good points for the realism in that regard but visually it feels very formal and doesn't really invite the viewer.
But the most important thing about Tesla lies in its narrative, which takes a lot of liberties but this isn't really a problem because this is something this director usually does, the only thing I wonder is why he didn't decide to fully embrace that course.
Just watch Cymbeline so you can see what I mean.
For the rest, I'd say that it's worth it.
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(Mauro Lanari)
Compared to the 2017 biopic "The Current War", Almereyda's "Tesla" is more challenging, almost arthouse cinema, as it aspires to convey to us the vision of the world from the mental perspective of the protagonist, who appears more insane than genius, silent, ascetic, phobic, mystical and perhaps even delirious. Fascinating but distancing movie, I wouldn't watch it once again.
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Oh boy...this is a set of loosely related vignettes and it just does not come together. It’s like a history channel documentary with a terrible narrator. The only good parts of this movie are Kyle McLaughlin and Ethan Hawk’s performances. There’s essentially no plot, weird scenes (like the ice cream scene, reminiscent of the big short but not charming like the big short), and I just feel like so much talent was wasted. It also feels like half the movie was shot on green screens in front of static historical images.
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This movie is terrible. What happened to Maclachlan and Hawke? Are they that broke? Because they must have been paid huge fees in order to stoop this low. I only want to know the director's name to avoid anything they do. Presumably there was no screenwriter. If someone took the credit for a script, it's clearly a pseudonym. Stay away. Hasn't Nikola Tesla been insulted enough by what passes for history and science? Must the moviegoing public continue to pay for more suffering and indignity? This is worse than bad. It's empty, aimless, visually flat, sonically desultory. It is emotionally triggering but I never expected Tesla to contribute to my descent into anger. Forget this "movie" now.
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Production Company
Millennium Media,
Passage Pictures (II),
Campbell Grobman Films,
Under the Influence Productions,
Jeff Rice Films,
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation,
Intrinsic Value Films,
SF Films
Release Date Aug 21, 2020
Duration 1 h 42 m
Rating PG-13
Tagline My achievements and conquests will be evaluated in the future
Awards
Sundance Film Festival
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
