Review of Tesla (2020) by Jluis_001 — 11 Sep 2020

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.