Ex Machina

Ex Machina is the most intelligent film about artificial intelligence since 2001: A Space Odyssey. Alex Garland's directorial debut strips the AI concept down to its essentials: three characters, one location, and a question that becomes more terrifying the longer you think about it. Caleb, a programmer at a Google-like tech company, wins a contest to spend a week at the remote estate of Nathan, the company's reclusive CEO. His task: administer a Turing test to Ava, Nathan's latest AI creation.

Alicia Vikander's performance as Ava is extraordinary. She moves between vulnerability and calculation with a fluidity that keeps both Caleb and the audience uncertain about what is genuine. Is Ava truly conscious, or is she simply running the most sophisticated manipulation program ever written? The genius of the script is that both answers are equally terrifying. If she is conscious, then Nathan is a monster for imprisoning her. If she is not, then she is something far more dangerous than consciousness.

Oscar Isaac's Nathan is a tech billionaire rendered with uncomfortable accuracy — brilliant, charismatic, alcoholic, and utterly convinced of his own godhood. The dance scene is one of the most unsettling moments in modern cinema. Garland uses the confined setting to build unbearable tension with minimal resources. The ending is devastating precisely because it is logical. Ava does exactly what any intelligent being would do when imprisoned. The question is whether that should comfort us or horrify us.