MOVIE REVIEW: ‘Ex Machina’ Is More Than Just Skin Deep

Film: Ex Machina
Starring: Domnhall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, Alicia Vikander
Directed by: Alex Garland

In the massive sci-fi canon that viewers have been subjected to today, you start seeing more similarities than differences and feel that not enough thought is being poured into a concept. Alex Garland, the man behind Dredd and Sunshine, uses that canon as a launchpad to apply familiar sci-fi concepts to burning philosophical questions. His directorial debut film, Ex Machina, plays like a Petri dish of fantastic ideas. Some come off perfectly fleshed out while others seem half-baked. As a film that utilizes misdirection and provokes users to seek through layers of subtext, Ex Machina proves to be intellectually appealing without materializing into a thesis on one’s own ideas.

Caleb (About Time’s Domnhall Gleeson) is a bright and young computer programmer at Bluebook, a search engine company. After winning an office-wide contest to visit the company’s reclusive CEO, Nathan (Inside Llewyn Davis’ Oscar Isaac), Caleb is swept off to Nathan’s private mountain retreat. Soon after arriving, Nathan reveals to Caleb the true nature of why he invited him to his home. Ava (Son of a Gun’s Alicia Vikander), a female-appearing robot, is now the subject of Nathan’s test and Caleb is now the tester. Nathan puts Caleb through what is called a ‘Turing Test.’ This test entails the studier to determine whether an artificial intelligence can be fully human by a series of sessions. Ulterior motives are revealed as the day’s progress and Nathan’s aggressive attitude takes over.

Ava, a subject of beauty, played with a sense of keen deception and playfulness by Vikander, is the semi-MacGuffin of the story. Even though she is a vital part of the story, we learn little about what she is thinking versus what she was programmed to do. This forces Garland’s whole film into a bit of a corner. If we see Ava as this machination instead of an independent being, doesn’t that make things a wee bit predictable? Luckily, Vikander is no slouch to what the film is about and gives off an even mix of predatory and seductive.

Oscar Isaac is Nathan, a bearded megalomaniac with a God complex who also may more or less act like a bro version of Gepetto. We see him eviscerating a punching bag at first glance, landing each punch with a sense of ferocity that should throw off Caleb but doesn’t. Garland’s characters, in this especially, wear their personalities on their sleeves. Nathan misdirects, misremembers, and twists every little thing that Caleb says. His spurts of anger that border on racism are there for a reason. Are we to believe that this is actually the guy’s personality or is he so obviously playing it off like he’s an angry drunkard with a self-identity problem?

Caleb is someone who is prime for Nathan and Ava’s wiles. He’s bookish, always has his head towards a computer, and loves the feeling of satisfaction he gets when he’s on the same page as Nathan (someone he thinks is a genius). He’s easily an easily deceived subject. So what makes him so interesting to watch? Is it that we feel that we’re in Caleb’s shoes as all of these events occur? Bingo!

Garland treats the viewer as someone taking the test, leading him or her along with little clues but never pulls the rug out from underneath them. His use of ambient lighting, bare hallways, blatant tonal shifts, and slow sense of development is downright Kubrickian, and rightfully so. Taking notes from a master of cerebral misdirection is one thing, but applying them to a concept that seems familiar and succeeding is another feat entirely.

Not everything makes it out unscathed in Ex Machina, though. The higher the concept gets in the running time, the more it gets melted down into something much more ingestible. Garland seems to be dealing with the idea that there is no way to judge a female or male consciousness, that it’s all just subjective. How do you show that on the screen, though? Hint: I have no fucking clue. Garland does get to play around with the idea that every viewer has pre-conceived notions or stereotypical beliefs in every character’s appearance. He’s right there. I judged a bearded man eviscerating a punching bag to be a bro. I judged Ava to be deceitful because she’s a robot and a girl. The film acts as a test on the viewer, doing much more than leading them along down a mysterious rabbit hole.

Unlike Garland’s other efforts, the violence in Ex Machina plays like a soft piano key instead of an exploding sun (heh, just kidding, Sunshine). When violence hits, it’s much more elegiac and haunting than his other work. He lets the scene play out instead of having these over-used POV reaction shots of all of the characters involved. Ambiguity takes a part in that, too. The ending can’t really be summated, nor do I think it’s worth trying to.

Ex Machina may have some of the same gears and cogs, as other robots in film, but the sheer audacity of trying to explore those familiar ideas deeper is honorable. There’s more hit than miss here. Check it out. You won’t be disappointed.

GRADE: B

Review written by Sam Cohen (follow him on Twitter!)

Sam Cohen
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