Ex Machina is as much a study in autism as it is in AI.

Rating: 10/10 (4 May 2015)

Caleb the coder is selected for the mogul retreat experiment because he has mild Asperger Syndrome. He cannot read social signals and stands no chance against Ava the android. Caleb misreads every single scene with both Ava and Nathan. He is right from the start being set up to fail. Nathan the mogul throws Caleb to Ava as a trainer throws a piece of fish to an Orca in captivity. Ex Machina is as much a study in autism as it is in AI.
This film is exceptional as it is the first film to astutely understand where the lines between humanity and AI begin to blur. Ex Machina examines autism, stripped of the standard savant clichés or Rainman tropes. Caleb is understood as fully human yet somehow unable to fully comprehend the monstrosity of Nathan's vicious experiment.