Domhnall Gleeson

Heartbreaker, I’m Addicated To You (Ex_Machina review)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

She’s not your typical girlfriend. Recognize those lyrics dear readers?

It’s from a Simple Plan song called My Alien. It’s probably one of my favourite tracks on that album. Incidentally, I was listening to their breakout album No Pads, No Helmets… Just Balls, right before I started today’s film review.

And conveniently enough this song ties in very nicely with it as a transitional point. I’m gonna share a few more lyrics from the song with you dear readers before I jump in.

She knows when something is wrong, when something doesn’t belong
She can read in my mind
And she can be assured that with me, there is no conspiracy
Shes not wasting her time

She’s not wasting her time. That’s for damn sure.

 

Ex_Machina (2014)

Cast: Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac
Director: Alex Garland
released on blu-ray July 14, 2015
********* 9/10

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IMDB: 7.7
Rotten Tomatoes: 93%, Audience Score 86%
The Guardian: ****/*****

Alexander Medawar Garland, also known as Alex, is first and foremost a novelist, then a screenwriter, followed by producer and now director. Garland has been involved with the scripts for 28 Days Later, Sunshine, Never Let Me Go, and Dredd. Which if you know anything about science fiction, should get you super excited. But his breakout fame came with his first novel, The Beach. This of course was later made into the film The Beach.

Ex_Machina is Garlands directorial debut. And given his record of previous projects, I just had to check out this film. Now I realize it’s a little bit late, but my policy at timotheories is always digital curating at heart, and so we curate that which is necessary. Especially since there was nothing new released last week that seemed worth the attention. And so here we are.

Already released on blu-ray and digital HD a year ago, Ex_Machina is a story about a surprisingly difficult to assess turing test. This is because the detail to which the newly minted android Ava (Alicia Vikander) is capable of convincing programmer Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) to play into her game of cat and mouse with her creator, and his employer, Nathan (Oscar Isaac). And this ultimately surprises both men.

Throughout the test, Ava is confined to her apartment, within the compound of Nathan’s hidden mountainside home. Caleb is locked in as well, to protect company secrets, but Ava slowly wins Caleb over during his questioning with her flirtations and expressed attraction towards him. Her ability to cause power surges cuts the security cameras at key moments and allows her and Caleb to have frank exchanges. This leads Caleb to believe that Nathan is abusive and cruel towards Ava.

Caleb eventually learns that Ava will be upgraded to a new model after the test is over, which will destroy her consciousness and memories. Caleb and Ava plot to overthrow Nathan and escape the facility together.

It is only in the final moments of Caleb’s stay before the helicopter will arrive to take him back home, when Nathan reveals that he already knew all of the androids were intelligent and had consciousness, but that he wanted to know how easily a human could be manipulated by one and how far the android was willing to take it to escape. Caleb then tells Nathan he has already engineered the escape, and Nathan knocks him out.

Ava is now out and works with the only other android to kill Nathan. Ava goes into Nathan’s room to repair herself using old android body parts and skin, becoming indistinguishable from a woman. She then leaves Caleb locked in the facility, now conscious himself and watching the scene unfold, taking the helicopter meant for him.

Pros: With such a small cast, we are really given the time to digest the unfolding story and enjoy the clean and concise results. Amazingly it is a film of ideas, dressed beautifully with carefully and sparing CGI.

Cons: The voyeuristic elements which are useful in demonstrating the flaws of both Nathan and Caleb kick into full gear right at the gut punch, and make it a little less thrilling.

Runtime: 1 hour 48 minutes

Points of Interest: Oscar Isaac based his character on intellectuals with dark sides, namely Bobby Fischer and Stanley Kubrick. Throughout the film the colours red, blue and green are used very obviously in each area of the house, a nod to RGB colours which are used for computers.

Ex_Machina just might be the scariest science fiction movie I’ve seen in some time. Throughout the film I was never clear on the true intentions of each character, and that in itself was an excellent turing test. At the end of it all, I have to wonder if Ava had planned to use Caleb all along or if he eventually offended her in some way or another. And that my friends, is why this is an excellent film.

And if you want further evidence, please check out the video review below!

theories Summarized

Swedish actor Alicia Vikander has an incredible range, and just the right mix of emotions portrayed to demonstrate the naïveté of an AI not yet realized. That surface tension is what draws us in, and makes us question the morality of the human characters, and maybe even sympathize with Ava. She’s not your typical girlfriend indeed.

Tim!

Cold Kickin’ It Live (Brooklyn review)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

I’ve never truly experienced homesickness. In all of the vacations I’ve taken, roadtrips I’ve been on, and visits with friends and family, I’ve only ever been away for a couple weeks at most.

That true sense of longing has never set in.

And so it’s difficult for me to understand what it feels like to be a fish out of water, but the beauty of film, is that sometimes, it can relay these feelings perfectly.

 

 

 

Brooklyn (2015)

Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Emory Cohen, Domhnall Gleeson
Director: John Crowley
released on blu-ray March 15, 2016
******** 8/10

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IMDB: 7.5
Rotten Tomatoes: 97%, Audience Score 89%
The Guardian: ****/*****

 

John Crowley is an Irish television, film, and theatre director, who is best known for his first film Intermission. He has directed a handful of other dramatic films, and has slowly worked his way through theatre to film, which he believes was a natural progression.

Though his films have not seen a wide international release audience, Crowley has a strong understanding of human relationships, and the complex emotions that relate to special circumstances.

And that’s where Brooklyn shines…

Taken from Wikipedia and edited,

In 1952, Eilis (pronounced EH-lish) Lacey(Saoirse Ronan) is a young woman from Enniscorthy, a small town in southeast Ireland. She works weekends at a shop run by the spiteful Miss Kelly (Brid Brennan). Eilis’s older sister Rose (Fiona Glascott) has arranged for her to go to the US to find a better future. She departs but begins to suffer from seasickness and food poisoning and ends up being locked out of the toilet by her cabin neighbors. The woman in the bunk below her, an experienced traveler, helps her, giving her advice and support for Eilis’s entry to the US and life in Brooklyn, the new home to many Irish immigrants.

Eilis lives at an Irish boarding house where she dines each night with the landlady and her fellow residents, all young women. She also has a job at a department store but is shy and quiet when interacting with customers, earning the gentle scolding of Miss Fortini (Jessica Paré), her supervisor. Her letters from her sister Rose, back in Ireland, give her homesickness. She is visited by Father Flood (Jim Broadbent), a priest who arranged for her job and accommodation, and he tries to help by enrolling her in bookkeeping classes. At a dance she meets Tony (Emory Cohen), from an Italian family, who is quickly interested in her and becomes her boyfriend. With these developments, Eilis begins to feel more comfortable in New York, although she is slow to return Tony’s declaration of love.

Father Flood informs Eilis that Rose has died suddenly of an undisclosed illness. After a trans-Atlantic phone call with her mother reveals that she is struggling to cope, Eilis decides to return home for a visit. Tony insists that if she is leaving they must get secretly married first. They enter a civil marriage without telling family and friends. Back in Ireland, everybody seems to be conspiring to keep Eilis from returning to Brooklyn. Her best friend is getting married a week after her scheduled return journey, and her mother has already accepted the invitation on her behalf. She is set up on dates with eligible bachelor Jim (Domhnall Gleeson), who is about to inherit property. She takes her sister’s place as a bookkeeper on an emergency basis. Eilis starts to feel that she now has the future in Ireland that did not exist when she left and stops opening the letters she receives from Tony.

Miss Kelly, her former employer, meets with Eilis and says she has learned that she is already married. Eilis is reminded of the small-town mentality she had escaped, where there are no secrets. She informs her mother of her marriage and that she is leaving for Brooklyn the next day. On the crossing, she plays the role of the experienced traveler, offering words of guidance to a first-time émigrée. The film ends with Eilis and Tony reuniting and happily embracing.

This is well-scripted story that features subtle character shifts, emotional weight with intelligence, and an elegance to the backdrops. Crowley does an excellent job of showcasing how Eilis feels both at home in Ireland, as she grews in America, then again back at Ireland, and finally at the change when she returns to America, her new home with a new life.

Pros: This is an incredibly understated film which does an excellent job of evolving Saoirse Ronan’s character from timid little sister into career-oriented and capable. Yes there is romance in it and it feels integral, but surprisingly, that is not the driving force of her story.

Cons: Because it has a slow start, and is harkening to an era of film gone by, it can be a little difficult to digest for some. And the conflicts are never incredibly dramatic.

Runtime: 111 minutes

Points of Interest: Saoirse Ronan was born in New York, but her parents are Irish, so she was raised in Ireland – this is her first time using her natural accent in film. Emory Cohen was the only American on set, which is odd given the film setting.

The entire film is beautifully shot, with excellent set pieces, costumes and characterizations. And though it’s already been said, this story really does work perfectly because of Saoirse Ronan’s efforts. It makes sense that she was nominated once before for an Academy Award (Atonement), because she can make everyone around her laugh, cry, or contemplate rather easily.

I couldn’t help myself while thinking about buying this movie, then while watching it, and finally as I write this review. But it has to be said – I finally get what The Beastie Boys meant when they sing the lyrics “no sleep till Brooklyn,” a song often describing as a rant about that New York borough.

Whether Eilis was terrified of leaving Ireland for Brooklyn or terrified of being away for so long, I bet that she just could not sleep on that boat ride. But that’s just my theory. What do you think?

Tim!