A sleek, tense sci-fi chamber piece that uses AI as a pressure cooker for power, manipulation, and desire. It’s smart, unsettling, and visually controlled, with a sharp ending that lingers well after the credits.
Ex Machina
Where to watch: Buy
Movie · Drama · Science Fiction
Wed · 1h 48m
Director: Alex Garland
Starring: Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Oscar Isaac
Overview
Caleb, a coder at the world's largest internet company, wins a competition to spend a week at a private mountain retreat belonging to Nathan, the reclusive CEO of the company. But when Caleb arrives at the remote location he finds that he will have to participate in a strange and fascinating experiment in which he must interact with the world's first true artificial intelligence, housed in the body of a beautiful robot girl.
Director
Alex Garland
Cast
Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Oscar Isaac
Curator Review
Verdict
A sleek, tense sci-fi chamber piece that uses AI as a pressure cooker for power, manipulation, and desire. It’s smart, unsettling, and visually controlled, with a sharp ending that lingers well after the credits.
Best for
viewers who like cerebral sci-fi with psychological suspense
fans of contained, dialogue-driven thrillers
people interested in AI stories about control and personhood
audiences drawn to morally slippery characters and twist endings
Skip if
you want action-heavy science fiction
you prefer warm or hopeful depictions of technology
you dislike claustrophobic, talky films
you want a straightforward plot without ambiguity
Overview
Ex Machina is a cool, elegant thriller that turns a remote tech retreat into a battlefield of ego, surveillance, and seduction. Alex Garland keeps the scale small and the tension high, letting the film feel both intimate and clinical at once. The result is less about gadgets than about the people who build them, and the damage they do while convincing themselves they are in control.
Worth noting
What makes it endure is how efficiently it shifts your allegiance. It starts as a test of intelligence, then becomes a test of character, then a test of who gets to define humanity in the first place. The performances are carefully calibrated, with the film using silence, glass, and locked doors as much as dialogue to build dread.
Bottom line
It’s also a sharp satire of tech-bro power fantasies, but it never reduces itself to a single thesis. The movie is seductive, cold, and a little cruel in the best way, with an ending that feels both inevitable and chillingly earned.
Top Letterboxd reviews
David Chen (5★) · 24391 likes
“You tore up her picture!” “I’m gonna tear up this fucking dance floor dude. Check it out.”
Dorsey (5★) · 19447 likes
This is a movie about the ways that men treat women. The "Obvious Misogynist" considers women as a tool for him to control and fuck at his leisure. The "Nice Guy" wants to be a friend and liberator to women, but that interest comes and goes proportional to how much he wants to have sex with them. No matter how similar in intellect and skill we prove ourselves to be, they believe it is up to them to determine our worth, our freedom, even our personhood. Fuck them. Rock on, Ava.
Matt Singer (4★) · 9530 likes
Viewing #2 was interesting. I feel like you watch the first time as Caleb and the second as Nathan.
meg✨ (4★) · 8694 likes
That knife went in REAL smooth.
Lucy (4.5★) · 7085 likes
i fell in love with a sexy robot??? NOT clickbait
Themes
artificial intelligence, power and control, gender politics, manipulation, surveillance, isolation, ethics of technology, identity and personhood