Tesla
Directed by: Michael Almereyda
Written by: Michael Almereyda
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Eve Hewson, Kyle MacLachlan, Jim Gaffigan, Donnie Keschwarz, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Josh Hamilton, Lucy Walters, Hannah Gross
Biography/Drama - 102 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 20 Aug 2020
Written by: Michael Almereyda
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Eve Hewson, Kyle MacLachlan, Jim Gaffigan, Donnie Keschwarz, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Josh Hamilton, Lucy Walters, Hannah Gross
Biography/Drama - 102 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 20 Aug 2020
Paint-by-numbers biopics can be so repetitive and stale, I sometimes dread the next one on the docket. Therefore, when one drops which colors outside the lines, even in random squiggles, I will give it a bit of leeway while quietly thanking it for daring to do something different. Writer/director Michael Almereyda imagined what a Baz Luhrmann biopic may look like. There are unnecessary, but welcome, flares and absurd anachronisms which feel unexpectedly appropriate. The narrator is not the film’s subject and it’s not even his best friend or wife. A few scenes are immediately followed with voiceover sweeping the rug out from underneath us, “But of course, this never happened.” In a different genre, I would start hurling spears at this point. However, in the world of period biopics, thank God somebody finally cracked their knuckles and attempted something innovative.
Nikola Tesla is every steampunk fan’s favorite wizard-magician. He took Thomas Edison down a notch by pushing alternating current to the front. He built elaborate Dr. Frankenstein labs out in middle of nowhere Colorado to conduct experiments nobody really understood then nor can duplicate to this day. He went overboard about messages from Mars, but hey, mad geniuses are still interesting though they may be confused. Ethan Hawke (Before Midnight) makes some bold choices for Tesla. He hacks all of his lines out through a raspy, hoarse, squeezebox of a voice. He has a thousand-yard stare and is on a perpetual verge of a nervous breakdown. You would not invite this buzzkill to a party, but he could do your taxes.
Nikola Tesla is every steampunk fan’s favorite wizard-magician. He took Thomas Edison down a notch by pushing alternating current to the front. He built elaborate Dr. Frankenstein labs out in middle of nowhere Colorado to conduct experiments nobody really understood then nor can duplicate to this day. He went overboard about messages from Mars, but hey, mad geniuses are still interesting though they may be confused. Ethan Hawke (Before Midnight) makes some bold choices for Tesla. He hacks all of his lines out through a raspy, hoarse, squeezebox of a voice. He has a thousand-yard stare and is on a perpetual verge of a nervous breakdown. You would not invite this buzzkill to a party, but he could do your taxes.
Our river cruise Captain is Anne Morgan (Eve Hewson, Bridge of Spies), daughter of J.P. Morgan. Almereyda says she had some strong feelings for Tesla and has her compare and contrast the contemporary legacies of those we meet according to their Google hits. That’s some kitschy quirk. Another quirk is the casting. Who could imagine Kyle MacLachlan (The House with a Clock in Its Walls) as Edison or Jim Gaffigan as George Westinghouse? They deliver, but I wasn’t looking at Edison, all I saw was Special Agent Dale Cooper from Twin Peaks. Tesla was born in an Austrian Empire backwater, today’s Croatia, and his outsider status did not help his case to be taken seriously within America’s elite circles. Edison offers him “an American meal” of apple pie and asks if he’s from Transylvania. The narration admits these situation most likely never happened, but Tesla assuredly did bump up against his fair share of anti-immigrant bias.
Tesla is somewhat linear, but also isn’t. It hops around in time whenever it gets antsy. Perhaps it wants to make sure you understand we’re hiking off the trail here. Save the strict chronology for Edison’s biopic. Nikola Tesla’s image conjures the more abstract. A man accused of living in his head must be scatterbrained; therefore, only the frame of a biopic will do. Let the more chaotic editing forces take over in the post-production suite. Fair or not, this film has a jagged axe to grind against Edison. It pushes back against what it believes is his unearned veneration. Almereyda’s pen puts words in Edison’s mouth he never said, but I suppose it’s the filmmakers prerogative to present his version of the “what if”s.
Myth colors our mental images of Tesla - some mad-hatter Slav ejecting lightning bolts from his fingernails - one of history’s misunderstood and maligned geniuses dancing around one of his eponymous coils. Almereyda and Hawke’s version is far too morose for any of that. Tesla claims to push the technology envelope and makes sweeping announcements some people say allude to the future of the Internet and texting. However, the man made so many boastful announcements, he was bound to accidentally hint on a couple which would pan out in similar applications. While some audience members may chafe at the amount of Tesla facts they encounter, others will appreciate the playful lighting and absorbing rear-screen projections. This is indie film, budget filmmaking, but they reminded me of old school matte paintings. Tesla will not be everyone’s cup of tea; however, don’t you want a break from the skull crushing biopics you feel obligated to sit through every year? Almereyda chose to spice it up a little bit, let’s give him the benefit of the doubt.
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