Ex Machina (2015)

Was Ex Machina really only released this year? Time flies when you're struggling to keep your head above water, I guess. Still, I'm still here, still healthy and still employed, and much to my own surprise, I'm still writing about movies twice a week and still enjoying it very much indeed.

Today's choice wasn't a difficult one, either, being as it is the directorial debut of one Alex Garland, the writer behind 28 Days Later as well as Enslaved, one of the smartest and most underrated titles to ever grace the Xbox 360. His worlds tend towards the bleak and nihilistic, but there's usually hope within the darkness, even if it's only a glimmer or two. Quite a lot like this year's been for me so far, actually...

Anyhow, Ex Machina. The setup is intriguing, if not exactly original - a young programmer (Caleb, played by Domnhall Gleason) wins a raffle, the prize for which is a week at the luxury estate home of his employer, the reclusive tech billionaire Nathan (Oscar Isaac). Upon his arrival, more details are revealed: the raffle was held to find a random individual to act as the human component in a Turing test, considered the gold standard for artificial intelligence. Will Nathan's creation Ava (Alicia Vikander) be able to convince Caleb of her fundamental humanity?

The good

Ex Machina is absolutely everything I'd hope for from an Alex Garland film, and off the top of my head it's hard to think of much higher praise. It's a meticulously made piece of craftsmanship that looks fantastic, sounds amazing and continues to engage the brain long after the end credits have rolled. The starting concept was a simple one, but as the narrative unrolled I found myself asking question after question, only to have the film answer them before posing several more. 

With the characters' perceived motivations constantly shifting, the audience is left every bit as baffled as Caleb, who functions as our window into the world. Gleason performs as solidly as you'd expect, but the role isn't any great departure for him; instead, it is Alicia Vikander as Ava that truly dazzles. A former dancer, Vikander infuses the character's every move with expressiveness; Ava's hands in particular give her away when the camera slowly closes in on her worrying at the fabric of her dress. It's a bravura performance, and one that hopefully heralds great things to come.

The bad

There's not a lot I'd complain about here, but I do think Nathan was written as too much of a pantomime villain, swarthy, bearded, sexually exploitative and utterly irredeemable. In a film all about people's motivations and the ways in which they express them he still seemed quite two-dimensional, and I was left waiting for some sort of interesting reveal that never came.

Speaking of sexual exploitation, I should probably add that I found these elements of the film quite difficult to stomach. My first instinct was to condemn certain scenes as gratuitous, but on further reflection I genuinely don't believe this to be the case. Besides, a good film doesn't always have to make for entirely comfortable watching.

The verdict

A beautiful, rather bleak vision of what might be the future or might simply be the present in a world too privileged for us to be able to imagine. Chilly and atmospheric, I get the feeling Ex Machina will remain with me for a very long time indeed.