Do the robot

Rating: 7/10 (4 February 2015)

This three hander play is quite traditional. It just happens to include a robot. Almost, but not quite, a nuclear family. For those unfamiliar with the idea, this is a real science fiction story. The genre isn't and never was about spaceships and ray guns until Star Wars appeared (and that wasn't science fiction either - it was straight up fantasy). Science fiction is always about social politics. Here, the politics is largely about identity and control.
It is a fairly profound examination of both ends of the Turing test, and for getting all this so right, Alex Garland must be congratulated. Strangely, the real 'bluebook' company of the film, i.e. Google in real life, would not do anything as pedestrian as build an AI. I feel that all the technical points were passed - even the (python?) code on screen wasn't utter gibberish.
There is an almost Asmovian feel of clean simplicity to everything, and the film leans heavily on peoples emotional fallibility. Indeed, there is a slightly retrograde feel to the ultra modern house set, as if it owed more to Kubrik's 2001 than to a rich kids play pen.
In all, a very watch-able triumph of the nerd.