Tesla Review
An experimental biopic about the life of Nikola Tesla, his development of the alternate current system, relationship with Thomas Edison, and Anne Morgan, J.P. Morgan's daughter.
Even though I typically dislike biopics and find them uncinematic, I have long waited for a biopic about Nikola Tesla. Having read about Tesla's life through the years, his life story seemed like perfect dramatic material suitable for theatrical film and shockingly has been exploited very little in movies having only been played a few times by Hollywood actors.
Director Michael Almereyda makes a bold experimental move with the film's storytelling, perhaps an attempt to break the wheel of the boring biopic formula. The film acknowledges Nikola Tesla is unsung in history for his scientific contributions and Thomas Edison is the figure of inspiration children tend to learn about in primary schools. The film features a character who is able to momentarily pause the movie, anachronistically use a laptop, look to the camera, and gives a modern commentary like a moderated university lecture.
This self-reflexive narrative style along with its highly digital-looking cinematography makes the film's dramatic scenes feel like transitional re-enactment scenes out of a lifetime documentary. In certain moments, where Ethan Hawke is acting against an obviously back-projected background with a documentary-like voice-over explaining what is happened, they downright are re-enactments.
As Michael Almereyda pushes on further with this chosen off-kilter aesthetic, with its modern commentary gradually becoming more abstract with more interruptions that continually pull you out of the dramatic narrative, the film plays akin to a video art piece on display in a grungy underground art gallery with an alcohol license that is populated with skinny guys with long fringes and eyes in mid-blink standing around girls with multi-colored hair hanging about. The girl then says to you, "It's a great piece, isn't it? Screw Thomas Edison." And you acknowledge towards the display answering, "Yeah, it is great. That darned Thomas Edison."
Ethan Hawke approaches playing Nikola Tesla as how he might be like in person, downplaying the more mythic version of Tesla as a scientific wizard of electricity like David Bowie's version from Christopher Nolan's The Prestige. Hawke's Tesla is a lonely intense man of few words who does not stand out in a crowd. He lives inside his head all day and his imagination is presented as his greatest blessing and curse. The most tragic part is that he battles loneliness to serve all his ideas. Ethan Hawke's performance holds the entire film together through its free-flowing structure.
The cinematography by Sean Price Williams, who previously shot Good Time, was deliberately tight on the actors' faces. Significant moments like the lighting exhibition at Chicago World Fair are glossed over. It makes one wonder if this was all an aesthetic choice or to cover up a lack of budget compared to the grand sweeping historical shots in The Current War. It is disappointing on some level.
That said, I applaud Michael Almereyda's central idea. As a fan of Nikola Tesla, I am endeared by Almereyda's romantic notion and I too would have wished things would have been more fortunate for Nikola Tesla. What if Nikola Tesla had someone helping him financially? What if Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison worked together? There were hypotheticals I enjoyed entertaining along with this film.
That said, I'd have a hard time recommending Tesla to anybody unless they a) love Nikola Tesla and b) love abstract art. If you do not know a thing about Nikola Tesla and you are watching this movie to learn about him firsthand, Tesla will not teach you anything, at least not directly. I can see normal film audiences calling this pretentious trash. Speaking for myself only, I got the film's message. It said it in a weird way but I like what it had to say.
