Name: The Current War
Genre: Drama, True Story & Biography, Historical
Released: 2017
Duration: T1H45M
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Shannon, Nicholas Hoult, Katherine Waterston, Tom Holland

Trailer

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Electricity titans Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch) and George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon) compete for the American market in this tense period drama.

2017Rating: M, Adult themes105 minsUSA

DramaTrue Story & BiographyHistorical

All Reviews (10)

Director:: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon ('Me and Earl and the Dying Girl', 'The Town that Dreaded Sundown', TV's 'American Horror Story')
Writer:: Michael Mitnick
Cast:: Benedict CumberbatchMichael ShannonNicholas HoultKatherine WaterstonTom HollandMatthew MacfadyenTuppence MiddletonDamien Molony

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The Current War / Reviews

Sydney Morning Herald

Mexican-born director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s efforts to inject as much suspense as possible into the action verge on the hyperactive at times. There’s a pulsing score, a preponderance of close-ups, low camera angles, crane shots and slow-motion. It’s a dizzying menu, aimed at eliminating any hint of fustiness and show that this is a story as modern as the rivalry between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. And I suppose it is. But it’s also absorbing enough not to need any artificial means of support.

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New Zealand Listener

There is plenty of juicy stuff and even the odd chuckle in this engrossing and informative tech-history movie, with strong performances and pacy editing that propels the story through 13 years.

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Stuff

In the end, The Current War really does feel like a product of its past. And I'm not just talking about its delayed emergence into the light, but rather the 60 drafts and 10-year writing process it took just to get it to Toronto in 2017.

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The New York Times

Sumptuous sets and handsome costumes fill this period piece. There are also a few smart parallels to today's celebrity entrepreneurs, and to a world undergoing rapid technological change.

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Time Out

It's all a lot of effort for very little output, sadly. The Current War has lots of flashy lights and whizzy features, but it remains fatally underpowered.

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Vulture

Apart from those nutty camera angles and lenses, which throw you out of the action, The Current War is absorbing...

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Variety

What it can't do ... is generate even the slightest bit of interest in what happens to any of its characters.

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The Guardian

This a watchably stylised period film, with interesting visual setpieces and faces looming up at us out of intricately contrived backgrounds.

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Hollywood Reporter

For all its aggressive energy, The Current War is an uninvolving bore, making it unlikely to measure up as the kind of Oscar-baity prestige entry the Weinstein Company obviously had in mind.

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Empire Magazine

A stylish portrayal of a literal power struggle based on truly interesting historical figures and events. But it tries to take in too much in too little time, when all it needed was to centre on Edison and Westinghouse.

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