250W: Ex Machina

Short reviews for clear and concise verdicts on a broad range of films...

Ex Machina (Dir. Alex Garland/2015)

Technology can be scary. Google knows every search you type and Facebook knows who you’re looking at, how often and – with a little informed research - why. Ex_Machina, the feature-film debut of Alex Garland (Writer of The Beach and screenwriter of 28 Days Later…) explores these contemporary issues on a small-scale. Located within the isolated estate of a technological genius, Nathan (Oscar Isaac) invites employee Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) to visit, and ‘test’ his A.I. creation, AVA (Alicia Vikander). Garland is not inexperienced when it comes to cerebral, philosophical explorations on what makes us human. Supported by a throbbing electronic score, Ex-Machina manages to combine the morality of Never Let Me Go with the futuristic-technology of Sunshine. Key-card doors and glassy surfaces create a mise-en-scène that is part-Silent Running and part-iPad – we could be on board a spaceship. The red-lighting and ominous electro-voice hints at HAL-like A.I. rebelliousness from the get-go, but it’s Caleb and Nathan’s relationship that frames the story. Ava, of course, is exceptional – and her motivations are purposefully unclear. But the vest-wearing, lonely-drinker Nathan is a unique creation unto himself. Caleb desperately trying to understand and interact with him is often met with an awkward riposte. Caleb is asking the wrong question or searching for the wrong answers. Alongside Chappie and the sentinel-stories of Marvel, it seems A.I. is a thematic focus-point in this cinematic-era. Ex_Machina though is the superior offering. Juxtaposing questionable ethics of corporate powers with thoughts about identity, it’s a dystopia that seems uncomfortably real.

Rating: 8/10

The Complete Collection: Danny Boyle (Part 2)

To celebrate Danny Boyle directing the Opening Ceremony for London Olympics 2012, over the next couple of days, I will be charting the career of one of Britains top director...

Prior to making A Life Less Ordinary, Boyle was nearly the director behind Alien Resurrection. Personally, as much a I like Jean Pierre-Jeunet, the Danny-Boyle-Alien movie would be something I would like to see. Talk of wooden-planets and man-made-worlds does intrigue me. Nevertheless, Boyle utilised his strongest assets on his next project ...

A Life Less Ordinary (1997)

Ewan McGregor on his third outing with Boyle teaming up with, at the time, the exceptionally fast-rising star that was Cameron Diaz. John Hodge was on script, Tufano with the cinematography whilst Holly Hunter and Delroy Lindo were playing angels and Ian Holm, Ian McNiece and Stanley Tucci co-starred. A surreal-film clearly, as if the minor dream-sequences in Trainspotting was now taking over the entire film - but instead of the slums of Edinburgh, it was now the affluent LA-lifestyle leading to a road-trip. An estimated $12m budget, the film made a mere $4m... clearly Boyle was not as good as everyone had hoped. The film features the ideas of heaven and angels and we begin to see the Catholic faith that was a centre point to his life, now come through in this film - a script co-written by Boyle and Hodge. The entire film was tongue-in-cheek and utilied a range of unqiue features - claymation animation during the end-credits, a musical number as McGregor flexes his singing-ability prior to Moulin Rouge by singing 'Beyond the Sea'. This was a film which pulled Boyle back down to reality. After the incredible Trainspotting, Hollywood and all its glory seemed too much to handle...

The Beach (2000)

If we are honest, Shallow Grave was great as a small, indie film - but I find it hard to believe that anyone would believe Shallow Grave is better than Trainspotting. John Hodge, it seems, can adapt material exceptionally well but maybe his original ideas - Shallow Grave, A Life Less Ordinary - are not so well thought out. Perhaps inevitably, Boyle was not ruined by A Life Less Ordinary and so he was given the Leonardo-DiCaprio-vehicle The Beach - a popular cult novel by Alex Garland, with the screenplay written by John Hodge . Rumour has it that Boyle and McGregor fell out through this casting as Boyle, who was clearly confident with McGregors acting ability was pressured by the studios to choose DiCaprio. Boyle accepting DiCaprio meant McGregor was out and poor McGregor went on to ... Star Wars: The Phantom Menace playing Obi-Wan in all three prequels. I doubt he cries himself to sleep about it. But Boyle made a few changes with Darius Knondji (Prior to the beach, he worked on The Ninth Gate, Alien Resurrection and Evita) as cinematographer, replacing Brian Tufano. Though Underworld featured on the soundtrack, 8 Ball, Brian Eno worked alongside Angelo-Twin-Peaks-Badalamenti for the soundtrack. The budget was the biggest he had handled - $50m - and the film made a profit, garnering $144m.

Robert Carlyle was a clear link to the Boyle-of-the-past and though the film made its money back - for the producers sake, it would never have made as much with McGregor in the lead role - it was DiCaprio's female fan base established with '97's Titanic that pulled the audience in. But ultimately, many critics panned the film. Despite the inevitable strange dream-sequences that we come to expect from Boyle (In The Beach with DiCaprio as a computer-game-character...) and the associations with philosophy and the human-choice versus fate argument, linking The Beach to those roots of faith Boyle has, ultimately audiences felt that, though the film started well, it dragged as it went on. The book had scope and was philosophically dense - the film, less so, playing it too safe. DiCaprio was up for Worst Actor at The Razzies for his performance (its not that bad...) and Danny Boyle left Hollywood.

Back in the UK, Boyle and long-time producer, Andrew MacDonald, utilised what they had learnt. They dumped John Hodge, and begun a new screenwriter-director relationship with the writer of The Beach. The original writer: Alex Garland ...  

This post was originally published on 9th July 2010

Sunshine (Danny Boyle, 2007)

Introduction

As you are no doubt aware, from reading the 'A Life Less Ordinary' review, that I am a huge Danny Boyle fan and 'Sunshine' I have watched many times. I pretty much love everything about it and, for one, as soon as I get a HD-TV (a way off yet ... god damn overdraft), I feel that 'Sunshine' will be one of the first purchases. It looked stunning on a cinema screen and, no doubt, it will look stunning on HD. One thing I do love about Danny Boyle films is the little touches of spirituality explored and - according to Danny Boyle - the exploration of spirituality in a serious Sci-Fi movie is a must ...

Quick-Synopsis

Bear in mind, I am being brief and a little cynical in this synopsis, so I only advise you to watch the film and see how words cannot actually describe the brilliance of this movie so why bother explain it clearly when you should just watch it ...

We wake up on Icarus II a spaceship that has a job to do - shoot a nuclear bomb into the sun sun, thus reigniting it. This has been tried before, on Icarus I, but alas, their mission failed and no-one knows why. The crew are a diverse mix of professionals - amongst them Searle (Cliff Curtis) an on-board psychiatrist of the ship, Mace (Chris Evans), the macho-military engineer and, the lead guy, Capa (Cillian Murphy) a calm physicist who operates the 'payload'. There are many others on the ship: Kaneda, Cassie, Corazon, Trey and Harvey but that is all. The first act establishes all these factors until - oh, my, god - we hear a signal from Icarus I, breaking the equilibrium. It is unlikely that anyone is still alive, but is it worth going to the ship and having two 'payloads'? Doubling the chances of survival of the earth? Capa is given the choice and he decides 'yes' so off they go to Icarus I. They get to the ship with minor problems (well ... maybe not minor ... but ... ) and, once on board, they see that someone went mad and killed everyone. The ships captain Pinbacker (Mark Strong) who left a Kurtz-like message about God and failing missions. But he's dead so don't worry about it (well, he is burned from head-to-toe anyway). Then 'someone' separates the two ships from each other and a few lives are lost when they cross back to the original Icarus II. To finish Pinbacker turns out to be alive and well and sets off trying to kill everyone on board Icarus II and, after a lot of sharp razor-blade fighting, Capa manages to shoot his load (ho ho ho!) and Earth is saved.

What I reckon...

I make small cards every time I watch films and, for some silly - possibly pretentious reason - my first two 'lines' on this film were: "Ashes to ashes" - Sun, that is full of fire, "dust to dust" - Death and human skin. I don't know exactly what that means or where it came from. It just is what is, and I thought I'd share it with you.

One thing which is clear, is the appreciation of the beauty of nature, and how this links to a possible spiritual awareness. The Buddha-like pose of Corazon as she holds a part of nature is one such example, while the music itself from John Murphy and Underworld (Why, for godssaake, is the soundtrack only available for download!!!) is almost transcendent. But maybe, the almost-obsession with beauty makes people feel closer to God? The spiritual focus is primarily on Fundamentalism rather than glorification: Searle begging Kaneda 'What do you see?' as Kaneda, close to death, looks into the the light is the curiosity of God, opposed to the reality of His existence, while Capa - caught between the science and nature during the finale shows the awe of His creation. It all feels a little preachy, but I think this is part of the focus. Pinbacker on the other hand is Bin-Laden. He is the distorted - both physically by burns and visually by Boyle - version of a human, twisted and corrupted. Pinbacker himself breaks a certain element of realism that was established before his arrival, clarifying his strange existence - as I am sure we can all agree that the Taliban would be better off just not being here. One interesting point Danny Boyle raises in the commentary track for the film is that Searle is the complete opposite of Pinbacker in terms of faith - where Searle is willing to die for his faith, and indeed he does, Pinbacker will sacrifice everyone else for his faith. Pinbacker emerges from light when Capa first sees him and creates darkness in the ship with his distorted view - and that final act of the film with Pinbacker shifts the entire film into this fast paced, horror movie a credit to regular-Danny Boyle collaborator editor Chris Gill.

One thing that I found fascinating was the use of colour and the choice of colours to show the bleakness of inside the ship, while outside has so much colour and beauty you cannot help, akin to Searle, but be in complete awe of the sun and all its majesty - so a clap to cinematographer Alwin Kuchler for this! The overall tone of the film is influenced by 'Alien', '2001:A Space Odyssey' and Tarkovsky's 'Solaris' ('Solaris' being the only one I haven't seen...) and this is what makes it look so good - if you use such magnificent films to influence your work, then you can't go too far wrong. Might not be unique, but its how art progresses - art and influence.

Personally, films with a spiritual or destiny theme always intrigue me and I think this is why I lover this film so much! Why are we here? How can free-will and pre-destined fate exist together? How valuable is human life? These are big questions and Alex Garland regularly raises these topics.

One interesting note Danny Boyle made on the commentary: "Three Sci-Fi elements when you do serious science-fiction film: Ship, crew and signal (that changes everything)"