While the ever-expanding blockbuster culture of the 21st century throws up much in the way of justification for bemoaning the doom of the small-to-medium independent film, there is at least one glorious fibre optic lining. The rapid progression of digital effects technology that has gone hand-in-cyborg-claw with these mega-movies has opened up a gateway for brilliant, mind-over-laser science-fiction explorations such as Moon, Her and now Ex Machina.
Alex Garland, who wrote the novel for The Beach, the script for 28 Days Later and, most recently, Dredd, turns his hand to directing for the first time and the result is astounding. Domnhall Gleeson (About Time) is Caleb, a young programmer working for fictional Google-Facebook hybrid BlueBook, who is called upon by its founder to attend his forest estate and partake in a week of Artificial Intelligence testing. Specifically of Ava the android, the AI prototype played by the ever-captivating Alicia Vikander (A Royal Affair).
What unravels is both a brilliant existential dilemma and edge of your seat battle of wills as the magnetic Gleeson attempts to match wits with both Ava, her inventor and effectively himself as he soon begins to question if he is the examiner or the subject as well as the small matter of what actually constitutes humanity: Self-awareness? Humour? Attraction? Deception?
Everything about Ex Machina is stunning. From Oscar Isaac – outstanding as the uber-brilliant and barking mad inventor and tormentor Nathan – to the design. A glorious sense of style oozes from every pore of the billionaire’s retreat.
Ex Machina is an outstanding noir thriller, disguised as a brilliant sci-fi exploration, wrapped in an architectural orgasm. See it. Immerse yourself in it. Debate it. Love it.
