I was rather unimpressed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon‘s “The Current War” when it played at the 2017 Toronto Film Festival. Yes, that’s right, close to two years after its release, this formerly Weinstein-owned period movie is finally landing into theaters this October.
The film tackles Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse’s fierce rivalry in the field of invention and technology. It’s a movie filled with ideas, maybe too many, all of which leads to Edison’s historic lighting of Manhattan. However, Westinghouse and Nicola Tesla try to one-up him by introducing an alternate possibility for current.
Gomez-Rejon (“Me, Earl and the Dying Girl”) has a clear and concise vision of how he wants every shot to look. I’m a sucker for ultra-widescreen framing and DP-extraordinaire Chung Chung-hoon‘s photography is absolutely stunning here. …However, It pains me to say this, but despite looking absolutely stunning from the first frame to last, the movie is just very dull. I was not invested or interested in any of these characters (despite them being played by Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Shannon, and Nicholas Hoult). The blame must mostly go towards Michael Mitnick’s screenplay, which decides to turn this fascinating true story into an unfocused rambling of ideas. [C]
Marvel's "Ghost Rider" just hired one of the best cinematographers working today. Linus Sandgren will serve as DP on Shawn Levy's MCU flick, and, most notably, the project will be shot on film.