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MOVIE REVIEW 'Ex Machina' captivates with style, big questions Comment By Chris Honoré for Revels DailyTidings.com By Chris Honoré for Revels Posted Apr. 30, 2015 at 12:01 AM By Chris Honoré for Revels Posted Apr. 30, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Social News Ex Machina, 108 min, Rated R Be prepared to be captivated (or puzzled, or creepily moved) by a stylish film that not only constructs a compelling glimpse into the future but asks some big questions along the way. What does it mean to be fully human? Can edgy, idiosyncratic computer geeks/engineers ever create A.I. machines (call them animatronics) that possess a brain that doesn’t just store information, no matter how sophisticated, but can respond to questions posed with a startling self-awareness? “Ex Machina” opens with Caleb (Domhall Gleeson), an employee of a Google-like company, flying in a helicopter to the remote, mountainous retreat of the company’s owner, Nathan (Oscar Isaac). He will spend a week involved in what is called a “Turing test.” Upon his arrival — the home is constructed of steel and concrete and glass, beautiful yet stark, built into a mountain — he is briefed by Nathan about his mission. Caleb will be conducting a series of interviews with a robot named Ava (Alicia Vikander). She has a human form, her body transparent, revealing her inner circuitry, and possesses a gorgeous face and a soft, seductive voice. Caleb is tasked with determining whether Ava can cross that boundary that differentiates man from machine. Is she conscious of the difference between Caleb and herself? He sits in a glass walled room, Ava on one side of a window of sorts and Caleb on the other. Nathan is watching and recording the interactions. It is a fascinating series of conversations and it soon becomes clear that Caleb is drawn to Ava. Her humanity, so to speak, attracts him. Her preternatural responses are enigmatic, varied, demonstrating a curiosity about him that he finds appealing and surprising. The above doesn’t begin to describe how strangely creative this film is, how remarkably different. The characters, to include Ava, are remote, bright, inaccessible, yet maddeningly flawed and revealing. Nathan delivers a fraternal, let’s be bros patter with an embedded menace that makes Caleb feel relaxed, at least initially, and then increasingly uneasy as each day passes. The setting is simultaneously austere and yet welcoming, the trees seeming to be part of the house’s modern and sparse interior. There is a sense of bonhomie and beauty layered with a chilling detachment (“Ex Machina” was filmed in a mountainous region of Norway). There is also a question woven into the narrative: How do we define our own humanity? What makes us unique, as distinguished from other life forms on the planet? We know there are those among us who seem to have flatlined, as if they had been in retreat all of their lives. And yet there are those who, in the alternative, burn with a life force and possess a certain spark. Many glow with a humanity that can astonish when they engage. They possess qualities that can seem indefinable. Whatever it is, we know it when we encounter it. And it is that experience with Ava that gives Caleb pause while he marvels at what Nathan has achieved. Clearly her intelligence exceeds his. And yet, he also feels surrounded by a sense of corruption, that much of what he is told is a distortion and that he is being manipulated. The question is, by whom? By Chris Honoré for Revels DailyTidings.com By Chris Honoré for Revels Posted Apr. 30, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. 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