Dark Film Review – Tau
Review by Casey Douglass
Smart speakers and
other devices are infesting our homes, giving us the impression that
we are even more the masters of our domain than usual. Skynet. Sorry,
I just wanted to get that out of the way now. While idly browsing
Netflix UK the other day, I saw a new film had been added, one that
taps into these notions of meat-based master and techno-servents:
Tau.
The main character Julia (Maika Monroe) is abducted from her apartment, fitted with a
strange glowing implant in the back of her neck, and thrown into a
cell with two other unfortunates. She’s a crafty one though, and
soon finds a way to set them all free. Then she meets the titular Tau
(Gary Oldman), the artificial intelligence that runs and protects the
house that she finds herself in, and things go wrong once again. This
house belongs to Alex (Ed Skrein), some kind of tech-entrepreneur who
doesn’t let notions of morality get in the way of his research.
Julia now has to try to outfox both Alex and Tau, or she will never
see the world again.
Tau is a film
that spends a lot of its time in one location. At the beginning, we
briefly see Julia in dance-clubs and her apartment, but the main bulk
of the film is her being trapped in the grey walls of Alex’s
bunker-like technology-infused home. I do tend to enjoy films that
are set this way as I find that it builds an interesting tension, and
also allows the viewer time to get to know one location very well. So
this was a positive as far as I was concerned.
Alex comes and goes
from the house, going about his daily schedule. This gives Julia time
to talk to Tau. It is these conversations that really pique the
interest. She begins with getting Tau to understand that she has a
name, and things soon flow to the trading of information and mutual
education. She wants to know what's behind x door and up y stairs.
Tau wants to hear more about the things she knows about. Tau himself
is a glowing red triangle that shimmers and fluctuates on the wall,
but he can also control a fleet of cute drones and a murderous
death-bot. These variations on his embodiment, or lack thereof,
certainly add more interest to the film than if he was purely
wall-locked.
Maika Monroe is great
as Julia. She’s an actress I’ve enjoyed watching since I first
saw her in It Follows and The Guest. As Julia, she has
to be smart and physical, often knocked around, hurt and apparently
subdued, but always eyeing the next opportunity to make a break for
it. It’s interesting to see how her relationship with Tau develops,
and this even serves to shine a light on Alex and his own apparent
areas of lack. There is food for thought about how many different
kinds of “prison” exist, to say the least. And of course, with
any A.I film there are feelings of 2001 about it at times, but
Gary Oldman voices Tau in a fine manner.
Tau was an
enjoyable watch and I found the 90 or so minute runtime passed very
nicely. I did feel some of the CGI looked a little second rate
however, particularly the murder-bot at times. It was decent enough,
but there were moments when it didn’t really “sit” in the
environment that well. I did enjoy the animations of “Wall Tau”
however, and the drones were good fun.
If you like escape-based films with a splattering of technology and blood, Tau is well worth checking out on Netflix now.
Rating: 4.5/5
