16
8 DAYSscene & Heard
The Current War
STARRING BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH, MICHAEL SHANNON, TOM HOLLAND DIRECTED BYALFONSO GOMEZ-REJONWHY WATCH:Holy smokes! It’s Doctor
Strange vs General Zod!
THE LOWDOWN:Biopic about inventors
Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch) and
George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon)
and their race to “create a marketable
and sustainable electricity system” for the
US in the 19th century — is it going to be
Westinghouse’s alternate current electricity or
Edison’s direct current system? It’s literally a
power struggle!
THE BUZZ:Benedict Cumberbatch seems
to be the go-to guy to play tech geniuses. First, it was
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange (The Fifth Estate).
Then, computer pioneer Alan Turin (The Imitation Game).And now, America’s greatest inventor Thomas
Edison. The trailer sold the biopic — by
Me, Early and the Dying Girl director Alfonso
Gomez-Rejon — a 19th century version of
The Social Network. But in reality, the movie
was nowhere near it: It premiered at the
Toronto Film Festival two months ago to tepid
reviews (“A torpidly slow epic with a script
that moves at the speed of light, the film is
pockmarked with incidents that never cohere
into a clear narrative,” blasted IndieWire.)
The good news is, Gomez-Rejon has
reportedly gone back to rework the movie in the editing
room. Hopefully, the new version will be an improvement.
OPENS:JAN 18