Ex Machina (2015)

Released in 2015 and produced under the banner of DNA Films, Film4 Productions and IAC Films, Ex Machina arrived at a moment when public conversation about artificial intelligence was shifting from abstract theory to genuine cultural anxiety. The film drops us into that anxiety with a tight, contained premise: a young programmer named Caleb wins a competition to spend a week at the remote, heavily secured home of Nathan, the reclusive CEO of the tech giant where Caleb works. What he finds there is not quite the retreat he was expecting. Nathan has built what he believes to be the world's first true artificial intelligence, embodied in a humanoid robot called Ava, and Caleb has been brought in to conduct a Turing test of a very particular kind. It is a setup that strips science fiction down to its bones, three characters, one location, and a series of conversations that gradually reveal themselves to be far more loaded than they first appear.

The film marks the directorial debut of Alex Garland, who had already made a significant name for himself as a screenwriter, most notably on 28 Days Later and Sunshine. Stepping behind the camera for the first time, Garland brought a writer's instinct for structure and subtext to the material, which he also penned himself. That combination of control over both script and direction gives Ex Machina a consistency of vision that is rare in debut features, polished but never showy. If you want a sense of what Garland went on to do with that same methodical, unsettling register, my review of his later film Annihilation covers similar ground. The cast assembled around Garland's script is a strong one. Domhnall Gleeson, by 2015 already a familiar face in both British and international productions, takes the central role of Caleb. Oscar Isaac, whose range and intensity had been drawing attention for several years by this point, plays Nathan. Swedish actress Alicia Vikander takes on the role of Ava, a performance that required her to suggest both mechanical precision and something far more ambiguous, largely through physical control and an unsettling stillness. Sonoya Mizuno and Corey Johnson round out a cast that, in total, numbers barely a handful of speaking parts, which suits the film's deliberately claustrophobic design.

At 108 minutes, Ex Machina is not a film that relies on scale or action to carry its weight. It sits comfortably alongside other science fiction films of the era that preferred ideas to spectacle, a tendency I explored in my look at Mad Max: Fury Road, a film that takes almost the opposite approach but with equally strong results, and in my review of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. The questions Ex Machina poses, about consciousness, autonomy, and the ethics of creation, are ones that philosophy and science fiction have circled for decades, but Garland frames them through character and environment rather than exposition, leaning on performance and production design to do much of the heavy lifting.

Ex Machina is a sleek, chilling sci-fi thriller that lingers in your mind long after it ends, less about spectacle and more about silence, power, and what it means to be conscious. The atmosphere is flawless: isolated glass-and-concrete bunker, moody lighting, that haunting score. Every frame feels deliberate, claustrophobic, like you’re being watched just as much as the characters are. Domhnall Gleeson perfectly captures Caleb’s nervous intelligence and growing unease, while Oscar Isaac is nothing short of electrifying as Nathan, the genius tech billionaire with a god complex, bad drinking habits, and terrifying dance moves. Their dynamic crackles with tension, even when they’re just talking about ethics over whiskey. This just further solidifies my thought that Oscar Isaac is the finest actor if this generation. That said, the pace drags in places. The middle section loops into repetitive conversations and long silences that feel more like stalling than suspense. Some ideas are explored deeply; others are hinted at and dropped. It’s smart and stylish, but occasionally too pleased with its own intellect. There are other films that do AI better (looking at you Alien Earth) Brilliant performances, stunning design, and a story that gets under your skin. Just needed a bit tighter focus. A modern sci-fi gem, even with its flaws.

I keep coming back to that balance Garland strikes between confidence and restraint, and how much of the film's power rests on what it chooses not to say outright. The frustrations I have with the pacing are real, and I do think a tighter edit in the middle act would have sharpened the whole thing considerably. But those are the gripes you level at a film that is clearly swinging for something meaningful, and largely connecting. For me, Ex Machina sits in that particular category of science fiction that earns its rewatches not because it answers its own questions, but because it keeps finding new ways to make you uncomfortable asking them. Not a bad place to leave your audience, really.

Rating: ★★★  | Year: 2015  | Watched: 2025-09-18

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Trailer

▶ Watch the official trailer for Ex Machina (2015) on YouTube

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