To say that Tesla is an unconventional, comedic biopic would be an understatement. Writer-director Michael Almereyda introduces the enigmatic futurist to the audience with a humorous ice cream fight between Nikola Tesla, played by a brooding Ethan Hawke, and his nemesis Thomas Edison (Kyle MacLachlan).
The exchange is so catty it can only be described as postmodern. Then, a voiceover tells the audience through narration that it “likely didn’t happen this way.” The woman who narrates we soon discover to be the daughter of banking giant JP Morgan, Anne. She continues to guide us through the true tale via a quirky, modernized Drunk History lens. And it works!
Anne, who was rumored to fancy Tesla in real life, uses contemporary methods such as Google searches to establish the disparity of how history remembers Tesla and Edison. Gauging the number of results returned on the search engine when entering the inventors’ names as a metric. Of course, Edison’s search result comes up with almost double the mentions than Tesla’s, despite the fact that Tesla’s vision for wireless electricity paved the way for mediums we use every single day, such as text messages, wireless internet, and even social media.
While Almereyda does an exquisite job of spotlighting Tesla, aka the man who made Elon Musk, as an emotionless, somewhat isolated, cyborg man and machines, he also softens the icon to illustrate a more human side. Throughout the film, we experience an underlying theme of the machismo of men who want to lead the world, but no one is quite sure how or the right direction to lead them.
The Marjorie Prime director highlights the difference between the two titans by establishing that for Tesla it was never about monetary success like it was with Edison. The latter gentleman was a capitalist who was obsessed with money, power, and acquisition while Tesla was more concerned with the science of it all, as well as the more noble goal of helping humanity by creating efficient and effective energy that would be easily transmitted from miles away. To add humor to the cold Tesla character, while servicing to the film’s central theme of power, Almereyda has Hawke perform Tears for Fears’ Everybody Wants to Rule the World in a sort of karaoke number—which is worth the price of admission.
Throughout the film, Hawke–who never breaks character until his grand number in the finale—remains stoic. The Training Day actor pulls off being idiosyncratic while expressing his emotions via his gestures and eyes solely. The director reported that it was Hawke’s performance as Chet Baker in Born to be Blue, which made him excited to see what the Hamlet actor could do with the role. That was a good call on Almereyda’s part since the role spoke to Hawke. The thespian excels at math and reportedly used to do math with his father, who was a mathematician that reminded him of Tesla. Therefore, Hawke felt this particular story of Nikola Tesla needed to be told and he was excited to bring his personal experience to Almereyda’s biopic.
The delightful damsel, Ann, who is played by Eve Hewson, offers more of a comedic component to the role as often chasing after Tesla, but also narrating the interesting facts of his personal and professional life. This provides exposition to portrayals of life milestones onscreen that would have been otherwise unclear. Comedian turned actor Jim Gaffigan, on the other hand, like Hawke offers a more stoic performance as industrialist George Westinghouse.
Given the innovative storytelling mixed with the oddball panache, Tesla has the ability to simultaneously mock, pay tribute, and educate on the very subject matter it exposes.
After first premiering at Sundance in 2020, Tesla was acquired by IFC Films for distribution on VOD August 21st. Stay with The Movie Mensch for interviews with Michael Almereyda too!
Grade: B-