BOFCA REVIEW ROUNDUP: 08/21/2020

Ethan Hawke in the movie Tesla with raging waterfalls behind himTESLA

“Admittedly, making a film about the ins and outs of electric current doesn’t immediately leap to mind as thrilling drama, and this biopic wisely attempts to capture much more: the breadth and depth and soul of Tesla’s incandescent genius.” – Joyce Kulhawik, Joyce’s Choices

“Director Michael Almereyda uses paintings and blue screen backdrops instead of location filming to give the film a hermetic, artificial feel and suggest, rather than present, the shape of a life. The result is rich in mood, but short on charge.” – Kilian Melloy, EDGE Boston

 

Taylor Russell and Charlie Plummer dance at prom in the movie Words on Bathroom WallsWORDS ON BATHROOM WALLS

“Despite the lazy arc of some of the secondary characters and the film’s contrived and climactic graduation scene, the film is to be praised for the chemistry of its stars, and its success in humanizing a cruel disease with painful individual and social consequences for teens who suffer its stigma.” – Joyce Kulhawik, Joyce’s Choices