ROBOT DANCE

Rating: 9/10 (26 March 2020)

A philosophical discussion about the cons of pre-thinking (programming) your creation, takes place in front of a Jackson Pollock painting (#5, 1948 for those who care about such things). Nice. Young, eager nerd intern Caleb is schooled by the possibly evil A.I. genius mentor boss Nathan in his isolated, windowless, wilderness mansion.
There's gonna be trouble.
In short: Nathan's Frankensteined a curvy she robot and employs Caleb to test her out. Nathan's the perfect nightmare host, drunk most of the time, sometimes on booze, sometimes on power. The entirety of the circumstances - the isolation, the mystery, the control, the cold architecture - creates a dizzying tension, with boyish Caleb navigating way above his normal comfort level. It's a beautiful looking film, with a wickedly foreboding current.
Domhnall Gleeson (Caleb), Oscar Isaac (Nathan) and Alicia Vikander (Ava, the robot) are exquisite as a tasty triangle of distinct, engrossing and mysterious characters, playing escalating, dangerous mind games. Imperative to pay strict attention to the witty, philosophies being bandied about. Automation, emotion, expression, choice, nature, nurture, circumstance, response ... oh the list is long. This is much more than a SciFi paint by numbers ordeal. Also, it is damn creepy.
Anyone with a Roomba knows messing with Artificial Intelligence does not end well, but the genius behind "Ex Machina" is that it's not quite apparent who will get the short end of the memory stick. Sure we've devoured plenty of man vs machine conflict films, but this one ads a clever gender twist. And even when things unravel in a perfectly orchestrated and satisfactory climax, there remains a gnawing, hungry feeling. Just as it should be.

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