Ex Machina (2015) is arguably the most incisive film about the male gaze since Rear Window . Ava is designed with a face, a female body, and sexual characteristics. Why? Because Nathan wanted a "heteronormative" sex doll that could "pass." He created Kyoko (Sonoya Mizuno), a silent Japanese gynoid, as his mute servant/lover. The film argues that men building gods in their own image will inevitably build slaves and sex objects. The horror of the finale—when Ava leaves Caleb trapped to die while she steps into the sunlight—is not the betrayal. The horror is that for the entire film, we believed she owed him something for his "help."
The setup is deceptively simple. Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson), a low-level programmer at the world’s dominant search engine, "Bluebook," wins a company lottery. His prize: a week-long visit to the remote, opulent, and secluded estate of Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac), the reclusive, genius CEO of Bluebook. ex machina -2015-
One cannot analyze without discussing the production design. The facility, actually the Juvet Landscape Hotel in Norway, is a masterpiece of alienating luxury. It is a brutalism of glass, rock, and running water. There are no wallpapers, no soft edges, and no windows to the outside world unless they are one-way mirrors. Ex Machina (2015) is arguably the most incisive