IF: Ex Machina
Artificial intelligence is having quite a year at the box office, but Alex Garland’s directorial debut is far and away one of the smartest and most spine-tingling films to ever utilize the idea. It centers on a young coder (Domhnall Gleeson) who is tapped by a reclusive but brilliant CEO (Oscar Isaac) to test a highly advanced robot (Alicia Vikander), who happens to look like a beautiful human woman, for signs of AI. But really, that’s just a jumping-off point for an engrossing cat-and-mouse game like no other, a story about what it really means to be alive and about the great and terrible beauty of creation.
Ex Machina is, on some levels, a Frankenstein story about a child rebelling against its parents and, on others, an unsettlingly erotic tale of forbidden desires leading people down a road to ruin. It’s a high-tech, high-concept battle of the sexes in which a painfully human man an attempts to craft the perfect woman but isn’t prepared for the posthuman, chillingly cold, self-possessed result to surpass him in every manner imaginable. As written and directed by Garland, Ex Machina is both a stunning thriller and a knock-out philosophy exercise, as compulsively watchable as it is delectable to take apart and put back together. It’s so much more than the sum of its fascinating parts.
MD: Furious 7
If you told me that by 2015 we’d have flying cars, I’d be less surprised by Jetsons-inspired vehicles than James Wan’s absurd action sequences in Furious 7. Skydiving four-wheelers? Now I’ve seen everything. Wait – a sports car that can jump from skyscraper to skyscraper? OK, NOW I’ve seen everything. James Wan, you crazy son-of-a-bitch.
I know Wan’s background is in horror, but the Saw mastermind seamlessly transitions to big-budget action in Furious 7. Instead of his typically dark, Gothic tone, Wan lights up the screen with picturesque shots of Abu Dhabi and explosive action sequences that look like they’re coming from a seasoned veteran. Plus there’s Diesel, Walker, Johnson, Statham, Jaa, Rousey, Russell, and enough star power to rival the meanest ensemble cast.
On a bittersweet note, Furious 7 is more about family than any other Fast sequel. Paul Walker’s death is handled respectfully, and his friends get one last tear-worthy chance to say goodbye. Life is lived a quarter mile at a time – never forget that.