Ex Machina - Finally an "Ex" You Should Love

Rating: 8/10 (25 April 2015)

I don't know how you could leave the theater without being impressed by Ex Machina. It's not quite "elite," but certainly is well constructed, acted, and has fantastic CGI effects.
The movie follows a coder (Domhnall Gleeson) at what would best be described as search-engine-marketing giant Google, if business names could be freely used in movies.
At the outset Gleeson's character wins a coding contest and gets to spend a week with the company's reclusive CEO (Oscar Isaac) in his research compound.
He agrees to participate in a Turing Test, an experiment to test how realistic an artificial-intelligence (AI) being interacts with him.
Gleeson's meetings with the beautiful, alluring AI being (Alicia Vikander) are the core of the movie. Much like the compound, these numbered events lead the audience through doorways into rooms that are always thought-provoking and grow more and more uncomfortable each time they meet in videoed-isolation.
You won't find a bad performance among the actors, in fact it's the best performance to date for every one of the lead & supporting roles. Most people will talk about Vikander's ability to seem "human-ly robotic," but Gleeson, Isaac & even a Sonoyo Mizuno role with no spoken lines, are just as strong.
Ex Machina is one of the most technically impressive movies (acting, sound, f/x, cinematography, even set details) - especially when you consider it's Garland's directorial debut. If Garland didn't communicate with Kubrick's spirit before this movie, Stanley will be reaching out soon to congratulate the director.
If you're trying to relate this movie to something more recent, Ex Machina has the "weirdness" of 2013's Under the Skin with a very different plot line and characters.
Reflective movie people will love it; if this isn't you, find your movie-geek friend, go see it together & plan for coffee after.