Irrelevant But Awesome

Alexa:  I loved “Ex Machina” when I first saw it a couple of years ago, but if anything it’s even more compelling upon a second viewing. Writer/director Alex Garland crafts a truly masterful exploration of consciousness and control. The film is bound to receive a lot of comparisons to “Westworld” now because of the subject matter, but as much as I enjoy that series, the subtlety and nuance of “Ex Machina” is a far more effective critique. The script is sharp and the three lead performances are all exceptional, particularly Alicia Vikander’s work. She makes Ava so vulnerable and empathetic that it’s easy to forget she’s AI, much like Caleb does. And yet she infuses every look, every gesture, every word with undertones of something not quite human, which only adds to the suspense and discomfort that burns slowly beneath the film’s surface. Garland’s masterful direction and the movie’s expert lighting, production design and sound elevate “Ex Machina” into something beautifully ha...

Alright, since we've had a few hours to calm down from the excitement from the  Star Wars panel from last night , I thought it might be a good idea to really go through everything that we've learned about Star Wars and The Force Awakens the past few days. Possible Episode IX Director? We'll start with the  rumor  that broke earlier yesterday that Colin Trevorrow might be picked to helm Episode IX. Trevorrow is fresh off the record-breaking Jurassic World that was released a few weeks ago. A lot of skepticism went around about how Trevorrow would handle his first big budget film and he emphatically silenced those critics and is now one of the most sought-after directors in Hollywood at the moment. It's been long announced that Episode VIII would be directed by Rian Johnson (of Looper fame) and was speculated to also be directing IX as well but that would clearly not be the case if this Trevorrow rumor turns out to be true (still no statement from Lucasfilm or Disn...

Alexa:  Frank is one of the rare movies that I felt the need to mull over for a day or so before forming a concrete opinion about it because it wasn’t at all what I anticipated – and I mean that as a compliment. Going into it, I thought the film would follow a fairly standard trajectory for quirky indie coming of age stories, that perhaps our protagonist, Jon (Bill Weasley, er, Domhnall Gleeson), a passionate but mediocre aspiring musician, might finally find his sound through his exploits with offbeat band the Soronprfbs. The group is full of intriguing, damaged characters, led by the charmingly eccentric Frank and the papier-mâché head he never removes. The movie has some good laughs and plenty of heart, but it also takes some surprising turns, offering an insightful commentary on fame, mental illness and social media’s capacity to propel viral entertainment, even at other people’s expense. The highlight of Frank has to be Frank himself – Michael Fassbender is an unexpected...

Oh man, how do I even start with this one without spoiling anything? First off, it's a surprisingly complex movie (in term of plot themes, foreshadowing and overall deceit) for a cast this small. It's surprising how quickly people become skeptical of each other while essentially isolated in a building for a few days. The premise is essentially, a CEO named Nathan(Oscar Isaac) of the world's most successful search engine Bluebook selects Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) through a sweepstakes to join Nathan in his secluded compound to run a series of Turing tests (a machine's ability to exhibit behavior similar to human) on his latest humanoid robot named Ava (Alicia Vikander). The biggest theme of the movie is the grey area between humanity and artificial intelligence. Nathan and Caleb are both brilliantly flawed and instantly weary of each other, each assuming their the smartest person in the room. This is the directorial debut of Alex Garland, writer of such films as 28...