A pioneer of more renown today than back when he knew the future has vast reserves of untapped wireless energy is the subject of a new Michael Almereyda bio-pick.
The unconventional Tesla has a stylish, anachronistic theatricality about it: Ethan Hawke, of the director’s beginning of the century Hamlet, fills the role with a kind of disaffected thoughtfulness. As Nikola the immigrant is paired with Kyle MacLachian’s wryer Thomas Edison. Not to mention Jim Gaffigan’s George Westinghouse and Donnie Keshawarz’s J.P. Morgan.
Like this capricious depiction that might seem off base or off key to discerning arthouse cineastes as in encore of the first No. 1 for the band Tears for Fears. Hawke defies going the route as aspiring naivety his notable inventions include the induction motor, Tesla coil, and AC current (vying against the DC current from Edison as both have a little pie when not engaging in ice cream shenanigans).
The manipulated futurist who used feline analogies and professed of hearing planets greeting one another is prominent in the historical dioramas. Neon bursts are a part of the imagery with old photographic techniques filtered into focus of creation and purported dalliances.
There’s a charged Sarah Bernhardt (Rebecca Dayan) and narrating Anne Morgan (J. P.s daughter played with gothic aura by Eve Hewson, daughter of U2’s Bono). Part of the unrestraint includes the lensing when not say at an exe murder’s electrocution for a whirl on roller skates for Nikola and Anne (who into him more because he’s much less a he businessman than her dad).
This foray may not be that astutely hip as the rails stretch to a degree as when an iPhone or Google searching on a MacBook occurs. This Tesla may not have the intended appeal considering how science and technology haven’t been warmly embraced in a continuing troubling present. Bet, Hawke is often plugged into an unappreciated soul sho would die in a Big Apple hotel nearly 80 years ago without a penny in rising current war of artifice.