Tesla (2020)

★ 5.8 1h 42m 370 votes IMDb
Sign in to rate this film

The story of the Promethean struggles of Nikola Tesla, as he attempts to transcend entrenched technology—including his own previous work—by pioneering a system of wireless energy that would change the world.

Tesla

Where to Watch

Netflix Netflix Watch
Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video Watch
Disney Plus Disney Plus Watch
Max Max Watch
Hulu Hulu Watch
Paramount Plus Paramount Plus Watch
Apple TV Plus Apple TV Plus Watch
Peacock Peacock Watch
Crunchyroll Crunchyroll Watch
Tubi TV Tubi TV Watch
Pluto TV Pluto TV Watch
Plex Plex Watch

Rent / Buy

Rent

Apple TV Apple TV Rent
Google Play Movies Google Play Movies Rent
Amazon Video Amazon Video Rent
YouTube YouTube Rent
Vudu Vudu Rent
Fandango at Home Fandango at Home Rent

Buy

Apple TV Apple TV Buy
Google Play Movies Google Play Movies Buy
Amazon Video Amazon Video Buy
YouTube YouTube Buy
Vudu Vudu Buy
Fandango at Home Fandango at Home Buy

Audience Reviews

tmdb28039023 1/10 Aug 25, 2022
According to this movie, Thomas Edison (MacLachlan) and Nikola Tesla (Ethan Hawke) were like Mozart and Salieri if Mozart and Salieri had been anything like they are portrayed in Amadeus – but then Tesla has as tenuous a hold on reality as Amadeus does, sans all the things that make Milos Forman's film otherwise great.

This movie derives a sick pleasure from comparing the two inventors, emphasizing Edison's failures over Tesla's successes – whatever those may have been; I confess that, after seeing the film, I haven't the slightest idea of Tesla's achievements, apart from alternating current (which he did not invent) and, apparently, communicating with Mars. Perhaps it's due to the latter that Hawke plays Tesla as some kind of alien; a combination of Keanu in The Day the Earth Stood Still and Bowie in The Man Who Fell to Earth.

Tesla depicts two meetings between the inventors only to admit that neither actually happened. In one of those imaginary encounters, Edison apologizes to Tesla and tells him that he was wrong about him. What is the point of this? If it is supposed to be a retroactive 'f-you' to Edison, methinks he is long past the point of caring.

Apart from the historically revisionist chip on its shoulder, Tesla is a stylistic disaster. The film is narrated by Anne Morgan (Eve Hewson), American financier and banker J.P. Morgan's (Donnie Keshawarz) daughter. In addition to her role in the events of the film, Anne appears in cutaways, sitting at a table with a Mac computer (?), reporting the respective number of results in a Google search for Tesla and Edison, and telling us to Google the American businessman and engineer George Westinghouse.

If this weren't strange enough, in the second half of the movie director/screenwriter Michael Almereyda has Hawke stand against a background that is either a matte painting (Niagara Falls, a field in Colorado, a restaurant) or a projection (a pair of horses frolicking in a meadow, to whom Hawke offers an apple); this might work in a stage play, or if the entire film consistently followed the same aesthetic, but here it's just another incomprehensible artistic choice.

All of the above, however, is nothing compared to what will go down in history as arguably the lowest point in cinema in the year 2020; Ethan Hawke as Nikola Tesla doing a karaoke version of Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World." This is the exact moment, with about ten minutes to go, when I said "F this movie" and never looked back.

Similar Movies