EX MACHINA (2015)
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned; whether human or humanoid. Malevolent forces ride the undercurrent of Alex Garland’s 2015 sci-fi psycho-drama Ex Machina on every front, which focuses on budding programmer Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) who is selected by prominent software director Nathan (Oscar Isaac) to facilitate a Turing test on the company’s latest project: Ava (Alicia Vikander), an android programmed with sophisticated artificial intelligence.
The black box in Ex Machina lies within Ava’s ever-developing psyche and Garland utilizes much of her cagey nature to reach under his audience’s skin to implant a sense of doubt toward not only the suggested ‘protagonist’ Caleb, but also toward the suggested villain, Nathan. Confined in her small apartment (or rather, holding cell) we begin to sympathize with Ava and yearn for her liberation as much as she does. Enter psychological manipulation. As Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once said, “there are two ways to be fooled: one is to believe what isn't true and the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” Without spoiling the film entirely, one of our ‘protagonists’ falls prey to both.
Ex Machina is a procedural on certitude; both the audience and the film’s characters themselves are left scratching their heads wondering who is to be trusted and who is to be probed. By the end, the measures each of these characters take throughout are pinned by some sense of liberation (even those considered “human”) and Garland allows us to identify with their plights through clever dialogue; albeit oftentimes cold. The film’s sleek cinematography (on a fixed budget) and captivating score only add to this mood piece’s nerve-punching atmosphere, allowing Ex Machina's slow burn pace to ebb and flow in tension without overdoing any theatrics.
8/10
