The Fundy Film Society

Ex Machina

Alex Garland, writer of 28 Days Later and Sunshine, makes his directorial debut with the stylish and cerebral thriller, Ex Machina.

Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson, Calvary, Anna Karenina), a programmer at an internet-search giant, wins a competition to spend a week at the private mountain estate of the company’s brilliant and reclusive CEO, Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac, Inside Llewyn Davis).

Upon his arrival, Caleb learns that Nathan has chosen him to be the human component in a Turing Test—charging him with evaluating the capabilities, and ultimately the consciousness, of Nathan’s latest experiment in artificial intelligence.

That experiment is Ava (Alicia Vikander, Testament of Youth, Anna Karenina, A Royal Affair), a breathtaking A.I. whose emotional intelligence proves more sophisticated—and more deceptive—than the two men could have imagined.

“Shrewdly imagined and persuasively made, Ex Machina is a spooky piece of speculative fiction that’s completely plausible, capable of both thinking big thoughts and providing pulp thrills. But even saying that doesn’t do this quietly unnerving film full justice.” (Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times)

“It plays like Frankenstein meets Blade Runner via Hitchcock haunted by the ghosts of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, in a film that’s both highly literate and steeped in tense cat-and-mouse chills. Thematically epic—it demands to be seen at least twice and should fuel hours of debate—structurally it’s as lithe as Ava’s perfect mesh frame.” (Rosie Fletcher, Total Film)

“To dismiss Ex Machina as just another robot movie would be like calling the Grand Canyon a hole in the ground. It’s one of the most original, smart, thought-provoking science fiction movies of recent years.” (Marc Mohan, Portland Oregonian)