Ex Machina
Composite Score: 84
Starring: Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, and Sonoya Mizuno
Director: Alex Garland
Writer: Alex Garland
Genres: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
MPAA Rating: R for graphic nudity, language, sexual references, and some violence
Box Office: $37.39 million worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
Ex Machina is Alex Garland’s science fiction thriller about a programmer who wins a work contest to take a week-long excursion to the home of the CEO of his company to help with a mysterious experiment. After signing a non-disclosure agreement, Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) learns that his boss Nathan (Oscar Isaac) has developed a robotic A.I. named Ava (Alicia Vikander) with human features that he is there to test for genuine thought and consciousness. The film’s exploration of A.I. and the ethics around it is surprisingly ahead of its time – holding up in the modern world of continued A.I. controversy. The film is also elevated by a spectacular script (nominated for an Oscar), great visual effects (Oscar-winning), and strong performances from its three leads. It is thought-provoking and entertaining in a way that the writer/director’s subsequent films have struggled to attain.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
Aside from some minor plot holes in the film’s third act that allow things to resolve how they do, there’s not much to complain about with Ex Machina. Maybe they made Oscar Isaac’s Nathan a little bit too cool, leading tech bros to bring us to the place we’re currently at in the world of A.I. and tech billionaires. He’s clearly unhinged and morally bankrupt – placing value on discovery and innovation over anything else, including human life – but that probably didn’t stop Elon Musk from taking up boxing there for a little while after this film dropped. Overall, though, Ex Machina has aged so well in its critique of technical exploration and the morality of scientific discoveries, particularly A.I., that it’s hard to give a compelling reason not to watch this film.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
Ex Machina exceeds expectations in almost every way for an indie sci-fi film. Its exploration of A.I. and scientific ethics remains highly relevant nearly ten years later. Questions of data privacy, how to use A.I., the rights of A.I., and acceptable use policies abound in the film just as they do in the tech world today. However, the film takes those explorations a bit further and strays into questions of philosophy – urging us to question the nature of self and humanity and “the soul” through its portrayal of Ava and her A.I. By the time it’s all finished, the audience is not just left with questions about whether we should be using ChatGPT but also about what it means to be human – whether the concept of rationality and ability to reason goes far enough in defining us, or whether we have some greater definition beyond that.
Living within the film’s deep themes and explorations of technology and humanity are the characters and their performers. Domhnall Gleeson’s portrayal of Caleb is almost certainly in his top-3 performances of his career so far, playing the dweeby programmer with just the right blend of intelligence, naivete, and insecurity to be the believable tester/test subject for Nathan’s experiment with Ava. Oscar Isaac might have been the perfect choice for Nathan because of how genuinely decent the actor is and how cool he comes off almost all the time. He disarms Caleb and the audience with his talk of the future and progress and collaboration all while giving some fairly blatant signals of narcissistic tendencies and amoral behaviors that we can forgive up to a certain point. Vikander’s portrayal of the robot Ava is unnerving in the way that she evolves over the course of the film. From her movements to her facial expressions to her inflection, we see the A.I. grow from simple computer program to nearly indistinguishable from a human over the course of the film thanks to the dedication that Vikander brings to the role.
Ex Machina’s questions of morality in technology and the nature of humanity remain impactful and elevated thanks to some strong writing from Alex Garland and quality performances from the three actors at the center of his tale, earning the film a spot among the greatest ever made. Viewers should keep in mind that Nathan is never the good guy in this film and not let Oscar Isaac’s persona distract them from the villainy of his character (and the real people who are like him), but that’s fairly easy to do within the context of this film. It is currently available to stream on HBO Max for anyone interested in checking it out.
