(dir. Alex Garland)
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| A24 Films/Universal Pictures |
“Is it strange to have made something that hates you?”
There have been dozens and dozens of films that deal
with the creation of artificial intelligence. So what is it that separates Ex Machina from the rest? That would be
writer/director Alex Garland. Though Ex
Machina is the first feature Garland has directed, it should be no surprise
how well it turned out. After all, he’s the mind behind 28 Days Later, Sunshine,
and Never Let Me Go. Composed like a
headier and subdued episode of The
Twilight Zone, or I suppose I should say Black Mirror for the sake of its modernity, Ex Machina scales back from the outrageous concepts that border on
fantasy and action beats that we’ve come to associate with robo-centric movies
for so long. Instead Garland narrows the focus and concentrates on character
interaction and developmental theory. It’s no stretch to say that Garland helps
put the science back in sci-fi, at least as far as modern A.I. movies are concerned.
Selected from a workplace lottery, Caleb (Domhall
Gleeson) has the opportunity to spend a week with his CEO Nathan (Oscar Isaac) at
his remote underground estate in the mountains. There Caleb becomes part of a
Turing Test Nathan is running to perfect the artificial intelligence he calls
Ava (Alicia Vikander). As Caleb grows closer to Ava, his doubts about Nathan’s
intentions begin to grow until he is unsure who is actually being tested and
for what purpose. The film builds slowly, allowing the characters,
relationships, and scientific theories to develop naturally with an
understanding that all are complex components that can’t be rushed through. In
other words, the film manages everything that this year’s last A.I. focused
movie, Chappie, couldn’t get a handle
on. Despite the film’s slow build it never feels overlong, largely because it
doesn’t try to cram in backstory or exposition. While we get brief and
meaningful bits of information about the characters’ pasts, the film hinges on
what we can actually see and hear. Body language and the space between what is
said and unsaid is taken full advantage of. Ex
Machina’s foundation is a pitch perfect script that doesn’t take the
audiences’ time for granted and neither speaks down to them nor over their heads.
The direction, while stark and decidedly understated, consists of some
wonderfully composed shots, particularly the silhouettes of Ava, and the
repeated contrast between the artificiality of the facility and its natural
scenic surroundings. There’s also a fantastic use of sound in everything from
the glass doors to Ava’s movements that give the whole environment a sense of
realism. Despite being a tech based movie, Ex
Machina is relatively untechnical, at least when it comes to CGI and
cinematography. The film serves as a reminder that stripped of dazzling special
effects, money shots, and a booming score, the core of science-fiction films
depends on what can be achieved with a pen and paper.
In terms of the performances, the small cast of three
and the singular central setting means that each actor has plenty of moments to
shine and play off each other. Gleeson’s Caleb is our moral center, the audience’s
surrogate in many ways, but one that never comes across as a blank slate.
Within the cold scientific compound that Nathan calls home, Caleb is the one
searching for warmth and humanity. Vikander’s performance as Ava is necessarily
hard to pin down. She exudes a kind of innocence in some scenes, and in other’s
a mind that’s always at the ready. While her design is striking and elegant,
there’s also something uncanny about it, an eeriness that’s only increased by a
performance that’s so close to human you can barely put your finger on the
aspects that aren’t. While the growing romantic tension between Ava and Caleb
provide the film’s emotional core, it’s Oscar Isaac who steals the show with
his completely disarming performance of the alcoholic, coding prodigy Nathan. His
shaved head, beard, muscular physique, and ape like posture all present the
image of a man who’d look more at home in a boxing ring than a research lab.
He’s humorous, cruel, and underneath the ‘dude’ act there’s a lonely man no
better than anyone else. Like the caveman who created fire, he may be the smartest
human on the planet, but he’s still a primal brute living in a cave.
The film’s questions of humanity are very much tied to
questions of God. Misquoting an earlier statement by Caleb, Nathan refers to
himself as God. Though Nathan considers himself to be one, the film mocks that
notion while alluding to mythology and religion. The film, which takes place
over a clearly defined period of seven days, twists the notion of God being in
full control of his creations and the ability to perfect anything in that
amount of time. The title and plot toy with the very idea of Deus ex machina,
effectively removing the Deus aspect from the equation. These aspects are
handled subtlety throughout the film and given the core themes and ideas at
stake, it’s pretty miraculous that Garland managed to make them all clear
without ever becoming heavy handed or pat. There’s a lot Garland is dealing
with in this film and 2nd viewing will provide notably different
contexts for a number of scenes. All of these ideas of quantifying humanity,
determining what is real and pretend, and gauging morality in the effort to
find truth all lead to an emotionally conflicting ending you will not be
prepared for.
Ex
Machina is the kind of restrained, undiluted,
performance-centric science fiction that I’d venture to say hasn’t been seen
since Duncan Jones’ Moon. It screws
with your head and your heart and leaves you plenty to think about after the
fact, not least of all our concerns about how our cell phone and computer data
are tracked and utilized. If from that information A.I. is created in our
image, then what are we faced with? Certainly not perfection given man’s
fallible nature. In its exploration of A.I., Ex Machina asks what it is to be human, but doesn’t ensure that
we’ll like the answer.
Grade: A
