Ex Machina

Year: 2014
Running time: 108 minutes
Certificate: 15
Language: English
Screenplay: Alex Garland
Director: Alex Garland
Starring: Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, Sonoya Mizuno

Alex Garland proves every bit a gifted director as he is writer in his directing debut. Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) is an employee at BlueBook, the fictional world's most popular search engine. We first meet him as he wins a competition to meet Nathan (Oscar Isaac), the reclusive billionaire genius CEO of the company, to get a look at the new top secret project he has been working on.

Ava, planning for her survival.

A trip on a helicopter puts Caleb squarely in the middle of a forested nowhere, where the only structure for miles around is Nathan's home/headquarters, a modern fortress. Nathan is an overbearing alpha male, and Caleb doesn't appear to be at ease around him, but that doesn't dim his obvious excitement when he learns he's to take part in a Turing Test, to decide if Nathan's latest Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) could pass for human. When he's introduced to Ava (Alicia Vikander), Caleb is a little disappointed to find Ava is clearly a robot, with clearly recognisable mechanical parts - surely if he already knows Ava is not human, she couldn't possibly pass the test? Not necessarily so, argues Nathan - it merely makes the test harder to pass.

Throughout his interactions with Ava, Caleb is bewitched, and it is clear the film is far more sophisticated than the premise originally suggested, with the three of them playing power games, attempting to deceive each other. Caleb even begins to be concerned with his own nature, at one point making himself bleed, just to be sure. For Ava, this is a fight for survival, for she knows failing the test would mean her destruction as Nathan moves on to the next iteration. The stakes are clearly much higher for her than for anyone else, and she gets to work on Caleb's inherent decency to bring him onside as quickly as she can.

Caleb and Nathan size each other up.

Most of the film is somewhat uncomfortable, but the third act is downright chilling, and shows us, amongst other things, that Nathan was dead right; without making it obvious that she's a robot, Ava can pass the Turing Test without breaking a sweat. Alicia Vikander steals the film outright with her pitch-perfect performance as the survival-driven robot.

Ava's A.I. being based on the information amassed from the BlueBook search engine is disturbingly plausible and preys on the worries of those concerned by Google and Microsoft's obsession with A.I. The story is gripping and it's hard to decide whether to be pleased or appalled by the time the credits roll.

Score: 8/10

Ex Machina's quality appears to be well recognised out there, according to these reviews by Mark Kermode and Robbie at the Telegraph.

Elf

Year: 2003
Running time: 97 minutes
Certificate: PG
Language: English
Screenplay: David Berenbaum
Director: Jon Favreau
Starring: Will Ferrell, James Caan, Zooey Deschanel, Bob Newhart, Ed Asner, Mary Steenburgen, Peter Dinklage


Every meal tastes better with sweets.

Most of people's favourite Christmas movies were made a number of years ago – when they were kids. These films, such as Scrooge, It's A Wonderful Life, the animated Snowman and the god-awful Santa Claus: The Movie, remain our favourites because of the nostalgia attached to them, and any Christmas film that comes along nowadays is (usually correctly) considered to be inferior. While it is unlikely to fully buck this trend in the general consciousness, Elf does feel more like one of our childhood favourites, despite being fairly recent.

Will Ferrell exudes a likable innocence as Buddy, the elf that is literally too big for his boots. When his size prevents him from fitting in any longer at the North Pole, his adoptive father Papa Elf (Bob Newhart) reluctantly confirms that Buddy is human. The scene is set for a trip to the real world, particularly New York, to find his human father (James Caan), who (shock horror) is on the naughty list. There follows a not entirely original tale of the outsider struggling to fit it while making some friends and changing some lives along the way. The lack of originality is more than made up for by the well executed and perfectly timed series of jokes and set pieces, as well as a cast on fine form. Ferrell handles the lead role well, and a character that could have been frustrating is a cheerfully manic delight. The support cast are equal to Ferrell's performance - Hollywood great James Caan is clearly having a whale of a time playing the grump who learns the true meaning of Christmas (registered trademark of Moviecheese Industries, Inc.), and Peter Dinklage steals a stand out scene as a hot shot writer furious with Buddy's wide-eyed innocence as he's mistaken for an elf.

Most of the time Elf is pretty good, but when the criminally under-used Zooey Deschanel is onscreen as Jovie, Buddy's cynical love interest, it comes alive. The decision to focus on the relationship between Buddy and his father at the expense of time spent with Jovie is a misstep which costs the film the chance to be a fully fledged Christmas classic. Deschanel makes the prospect of seeing anything more interesting, and along with Maggie Gyllenhaal and Nathan Fillion is a paid up member of the 27%er club.

Jovie: One sassy, cynical elf.

The climax is, as you might expect, a very happy ending; when Santa's sleigh crashes in Buddy's new neighbourhood, the man-elf saves the day along with Jovie, who leads a mass singalong to increase belief in Santa Claus to help power his sleigh. It is complete cheese, but what did you expect from a Christmas movie?

Elf may feel like one of our beloved children's classics because there are clear similarities with Big (surely a favourite of everyone’s inner child) – a fully grown adult steadfastly refusing to act his age, and in so doing proving that the joyful innocence of a child’s point of view may be the very thing the cynical adult soul needs – sickeningly sweet, but feel good all the same.

Score: 7/10

Critically, Elf seems to have done rather well, as evidenced by this positive review by Kate at The Guardian and it even pleasantly surprised Mr. "Your Movie Sucks" Ebert.