Garland’s career as a novelist means he knows how to tell a good story and Ex Machina is an accomplished thriller. The score, from Geoff Barrow of Portishead and Ben Salisbury, adds an extra dimension as an ambient sonic atmosphere crafted to match the dark, labyrinthine corridors of the tech facility and the sweeping panoramas of the Norwegian countryside. He considers Caleb to be the weaker man, both intellectually and physically, and never misses a chance to demonstrate his machismo – be it skipping to the top of a fjord while Caleb struggles, or pointedly lifting weights while engaged in a daily debrief. His darker side emerges: he drinks heavily, becomes aggressive and is prone to the bouts of egotism. Isolated by both his wealth and geographical location, his only (human) company in his vast tech facility is his housekeeper, Kyoko (Sonoya Mizuno), who does not speak English a paranoid safeguard for Nathan’s trade secrets. Nathan is initially welcoming, but despite his pleas for Caleb to ignore the employer-employee dynamic, Caleb is always aware of the power disparity between them. They inhabit these conflicting, manipulative personalities so completely, we’re never quite sure of the truth – or whose truth – to believe. If we believe Ava is alive, will she be allowed to live that life on her own terms? Will her artificial life be held to the same standard as human life? Ava is corporate property, so at what point does the machine transcend its origin as an object and become a person?īut Ex Machina is still, at heart, a paranoid thriller and the three central performances from Vikander, Gleeson and Isaac make the story just as absorbing as the questions it asks. The question of Ava’s consciousness is only the start, because Caleb’s decision will have huge consequences. With this tense, psychological thriller, Garland asks the biggest question of all – what does it mean to be alive? Ex Machina is essentially 108 minutes of three people sitting around talking to each other, but this existential grappling is so compelling that it is impossible not to be drawn into both the story and the bigger questions that motivate it.
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