Tau

Movie Name: Tau
Year of Release: 2018

Director: Federico D'Alessandro

Stars: Maika Monroe, Ed Skrein, Gary Oldman, Fiston Barek, Ivana Zivkovic

Genre: Sci-Fi, Thriller

Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 3
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Synopsis:

Streaming giant Netflix continues debuting content, this time around with a sci-fi feature, from a first time director. The film  by the name of "Tau", follows the misadventures of Julia, a young woman who lives by herself, in an unknown city in the near future. Julia resorts to scams to make a living, until she finds herself captured, and being tortured, with no knowledge of the reason and where she even is. She soon finds out her captor is named Alex, and he is using her and a few other individuals to test and gather data for technology he is developing. When Julia tries to escape, she finds herself detained by an AI entity created by Alex, named Tau. Julia slowly develops a relationship with Tau, with the intent of creating an ally that can help her escape what is most certainly a deathtrap.
"Tau" is built as a claustrophobic thriller, with the pending menace always hovering over the central character. It's a three part game, with one of the main characters being a AI, who responds to the relationship being established with Julia, the central heroine. The film and the screenplay falters in the development of the actual characters, since there's never much insight into who they really are and come from. The main opponent also comes across as under-developed, and sadly Ed Skrein does not have the skills to actually create a character that is simultaneously cold, intelligent and menacing. Where the film does manage to have some interest, is in the utilization of Gary Oldman's voice as Tau - the actor manages to imbue the artificial construct with just enough personality, and progressive humanity, that makes this small film somewhat interesting. Maika Monroe, following her performance in David Robert Mitchell's "It Follows", isn't as equally impressive in what could have been an arresting performance, if powered by a sense of urgency, dread and fear. The cinematography from Larry Smith is impeccable, as is the score from Bear McCreary. It's a quickly forgettable endeavor for all parts involved.