Ex Machina (12A.)
Directed by Alex Garland.
Starring Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Issacs, Alicia Vikander and Sonoya Mizuno. 108 mins
I hate it when a trailer gives away too much about the film but that's definitely the case here. The crisply edited promo give you a clear indication that this is a chamber drama trying to kid you it's something more visceral. When Caleb (Gleason) wins his golden ticket to visit his own personal equivalent of Willy Wonka chocolate factory – a lottery among all the employees of the world's largest search engine to spend a week with their reclusive, genius computer programmer boss Nathan (Isaacs) at his secret and remote headquarters – he doesn't realise how much of a Charlie he may actually be.
Nathan is a very modern version of the mad evil scientist, being indecently young and so full of himself he probably think he's a really good guy. Domhnall Gleeson has great range (he was chillingly evil in Calvary) but seems to be stuck in a rut of playing well intentions saps and he's used in much the same way here. Beyond the main deux in Ex Machina there is a third element, Ava (Vikander), a beautiful female robot housing Nathan's latest A.I. prototype. Caleb's prize is to spend his seven days giving her the Turing Test to see if she passes as a genuine Artificial Intelligence.
Nathan's pad resembles a Grand Designs project, a glass heavy living space that interacts with the natural elements surrounding it, leading smoothly into a subterranean research facility. It looks lovely and shiny and sleek and modern, but a little unlived in and this may be true of the film as a whole. The directorial debut of the man who wrote The Beach, Sunshine and 28 Days Later is a three handed psychological tussle as the audience tries to work out who is playing who and who can be trusted. It looks good, is well performed and has excellent special effects but doesn't really have enough ideas or invention to fill out its running time. Having pared things down to a bare minimum, what has been kept needs to be sharp and original but this merely makes some routine explorations down some well worn paths. It's like displaying the Mona Lisa in the turbine hall of the Tate Modern – it looks great but it's been seen before and really doesn't make the best use of the space.
Frank review
Inside Llewyn Davis
Ex Machina (12A.)
Directed by Alex Garland.
Starring Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Issacs, Alicia Vikander and Sonoya Mizuno. 108 mins
I hate it when a trailer gives away too much about the film but that's definitely the case here. The crisply edited promo give you a clear indication that this is a chamber drama trying to kid you it's something more visceral. When Caleb (Gleason) wins his golden ticket to visit his own personal equivalent of Willy Wonka chocolate factory – a lottery among all the employees of the world's largest search engine to spend a week with their reclusive, genius computer programmer boss Nathan (Isaacs) at his secret and remote headquarters – he doesn't realise how much of a Charlie he may actually be.
Nathan is a very modern version of the mad evil scientist, being indecently young and so full of himself he probably think he's a really good guy. Domhnall Gleeson has great range (he was chillingly evil in Calvary) but seems to be stuck in a rut of playing well intentions saps and he's used in much the same way here. Beyond the main deux in Ex Machina there is a third element, Ava (Vikander), a beautiful female robot housing Nathan's latest A.I. prototype. Caleb's prize is to spend his seven days giving her the Turing Test to see if she passes as a genuine Artificial Intelligence.
Nathan's pad resembles a Grand Designs project, a glass heavy living space that interacts with the natural elements surrounding it, leading smoothly into a subterranean research facility. It looks lovely and shiny and sleek and modern, but a little unlived in and this may be true of the film as a whole. The directorial debut of the man who wrote The Beach, Sunshine and 28 Days Later is a three handed psychological tussle as the audience tries to work out who is playing who and who can be trusted. It looks good, is well performed and has excellent special effects but doesn't really have enough ideas or invention to fill out its running time. Having pared things down to a bare minimum, what has been kept needs to be sharp and original but this merely makes some routine explorations down some well worn paths. It's like displaying the Mona Lisa in the turbine hall of the Tate Modern – it looks great but it's been seen before and really doesn't make the best use of the space.
Frank review
Inside Llewyn Davis
