Weekend Watch: Tesla And Random Acts Of Violence
Image Credit: IFC Films
Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, in which I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, a real-life technical whizz in Tesla and Random Acts Of Violence, about a comic book creator whose subject is a little more dangerous than he thought. Both are films from directors who’ve wanted to make them for a while.
Tesla is not, by any means, a conventional biopic. But then, Nikola Tesla was not a conventional man. Director Michael Almereyda has been trying to make a film about him for more than three decades and has finally made it happen. The result is sporadically entertaining, if often more concerned with artistic flair than character.
Almereyda’s occasional collaborator Ethan Hawke plays Tesla here, charting his attempts to get his alternating current and other inventions out into the world, clashing with Thomas Edison (Kyle MacLachlan) and becoming the subject of fascination for Anne Morgan (Eve Hewson). If you’re at all familiar with Tesla’s complicated, frustrating story, you’ll see some of the major beats here, plus some layers that Almereyda added. Among those is a lot of anachronistic asides and little flourishes (Edison has an iPhone at one point, Hewson’s Anne fills us in on the main players’ backstory while sat at a Mac laptop). But for the majority of the film, it’s a lot of talky conversations in shadowy rooms about power of all sorts.
Still, Almereyda has a winning colleague in Hawke, who breathes life into Tesla, even as he plays him as withdrawn and intellectual. MacLachlan is suitably scheming (though not outright villainous) as Edison, while Jim Gaffigan is a gruff, friendly George Westinghouse, who sponsors and funds Tesla for a period. Hewson is given less to chew on but makes Anne work. The film itself derives mixed results from a compelling if well-trodden story (we’ve seen Tesla brought to the screen a few times before), and Almereyda does have a nice turn of phrase at times (“there’s more than one way to skin a cat,” quips Westinghouse at one point. “Take it from an old cat-skinner”).
Tesla’s a frustrating affair – even as I found myself feeling fully engaged with the story, the tension would deflate and more exposition would fill the screen, making it more rote than it might otherwise be. Yet for those who have always been fascinated by Tesla’s experiences, it’s a worthwhile experiment by Almereyda, and his years-long efforts haven’t been in vain. If it’s a tad underpowered at times and over-cranked at others, Tesla should spark joy in those who know the name as more than just a luxury car.
Tesla is on limited release in US cinemas and on the main PVOD outlets.
Image Credit: Shudder
Random Acts Of Violence represents Jay Baruchel’s second film as a director, following hockey comedy sequel Goon. Baruchel is better known for his nerdy roles in films such as Nick And Norah’s Infinite Playlist, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, She’s Out Of My League, and as the voice of Hiccup in the How To Train Your Dragon franchise. But he’s also a fervid horror fan and has been working on the script for this new movie alongside co-writer Jesse Chabot for a decade. Based on the comic by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, the film finds comicbook writer Todd (Jesse Williams) trying to finish the final chapter of his successful, slaughter-laden horror title Slasherman. Looking for some inspiration, he combines a signing tour with a road trip to the small town where the real-life serial killer he based his character on wreaked bloody havoc. Along for the ride are Kathy (Jordana Brewster), his girlfriend who is researching a book to give the killer’s victims a voice, Aurora (Niamh Wilson), Todd’s assistant, and Ezra (Baruchel), his publisher, who is eagerly awaiting the pages. It’s not spoiling anything to say that the road trip takes a bloody turn, but of course, I’ll skip the specifics.
The original comic book was itself a meditation on violence and how the printed form deals in different ways with true-crime stories; the movie takes that idea and runs even further with it, going meta in moments that lend it more weight than your average stalk-and-slash movie. Make no mistake, though: this has enough blood and guts to keep gorehounds happy. I’ll hold my hand up and admit that the genre isn’t among my favourites, but I appreciated the extra layers and thematic element that Baruchel and Chabot worked into their screenplay. This is not some brainless experiment in fear. And while the film is commenting on the genre, it never goes so far as to lose itself in that.
Williams and Brewster enjoy the more developed roles, the creator wrangling with how to wrap up his killer’s story and the journalist who would rather honour the people whose life he ended, arguing the merits of turning a killing spree into entertainment for the masses, and then feeling the danger personally when they venture into more visceral territory. They have solid support from Wilson and Baruchel, who are more than just comic relief.
In just his second film, Baruchel has developed a keen eye for a colour scheme. Working in conjunction with cinematographer Karim Hussain, he fills the screen with sickly hues of green for one kill scene, and floods it with reds and oranges elsewhere (Christmas ties into the story in unexpected ways), putting the viewer off-kilter and ramping up the fear factor. He channels his love of the genre into an effective, skewed take on serial slaughtering, the impacts it has on the world at large and, in one added subplot, the idea of toxic fandom.
Horror hunters will be delighted, and if you were ready to write the film off based on the concept, it’s worth a second stab.
Random Acts Of Violence is on Shudder now.