Ever thought your phone was listening to you? Yeah, it (defintely) is…

For most people, Wednesday is nothing but an overdrawn schlep. But for members of the LWA office, it’s Executive Decision day, where regular movie-goers become bonafide cinephiles, debating heatedly in the hopes that we’ll select just the right flick for our readers to binge. This week, we toyed with Bruce Willis and Chris Rock classics, but none of them stuck in quite the way that our final (executive) decision did, that being Alex Garland’s 2014 sci-fi thriller, Ex Machina. The film follows an innocent enough programmer (Caleb) after he wins a competition to meet the CEO of an artificial intelligence conglomerate.

At a reclusive lab in the woods, Caleb participates in his boss’ (Alex) experiment, studying the human qualities of an AI robot (Ava) he’s created for decidedly dubious. After some time, Caleb notices cracks in the Silicon Valley mogul’s study, namely in his treatment of the extremely human-like android. Naturally, questions around technology and humanity arise, as does a stack of sleek cinematography and stellar performances. If you’re not convinced, then here’s five reasons why you should (re)watch Ex Machina tonight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoQuVnKhxaM

Siri comes to life.

The sci-fi genre is rife with real-world parallels, often uncanny enough to warrant an immediate deactivation of all your devices. With all the sharp commentary of a Black Mirror episode, Ex Machina sets its sights on artificial intelligence, making a convincing case to never utter the words ‘Hey Siri’ again. By taking the growth of AI to its speculative extremes, Ex Machina dissects the implications of our reliance on technology, which is ironic given that Stan’s algorithm probably already suggested this movie last week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7C69HqnV8s

**Technology has only progressed more since Ex Machina’s release.**

If the message Ex Machina sends wasn’t prudent enough during its 2014 release, then a rewatch some eight years later makes it all the more frightening. Since the early 2010s, technology has progressed to the point where AI now knows what shoes I want before my current ones have even worn out, making an android like Ava not only possible, but inevitable. And if the future is anything like Ex Machina hypothesises, then robots will be used for exactly what you think. So timely was the film’s message that director Adam Garland first pitched it as “ten minutes from now.”

It comes from A24.

Despite being a relatively young film house, production company A24 has consistently released a slew of exceptional offerings, from TV series like Euphoria to hidden gems like Lady Bird, Mid90s and Moonlight. At this point, seeing the A24 title card before a film all but guarantees its quality, which is exactly the case for Ex Machina.

It’s filled with geeky references.

If you’re the sort of movie-goer who’ll interrupt dialogue to spout needless facts about actors, storylines or general film trivia, then Ex Machina is for you. I hate to be that guy, but did you realise that the character Ava derives her name from Eve – as in, the first (robot) woman? Uber sci-fi nerds will also notice that in a complete role reversal, Caleb’s Domhnall Gleeson previously played his own life-like android in season one of Black Mirror. Any film that’s riddled with these chess-like nitty-gritty’s is worthy of a watch on appreciation alone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3JlEi3CbGI

Double-twist ending.

There’s an art to the perfect movie twist. If executed correctly, the right twist should linger on a film’s periphery, only to rear its head in the climactic third act. And while Ex Machina’s central twist is somewhat expected (think, robot meets her maker), it’s Ava’s abandonment of Caleb in the final scene that’s the real kicker. Having developed a relationship with Caleb throughout the film, Ava’s decision to keep him in an air-locked room (thus causing his death), is an M. Night Shyamalan-worthy twist of the knife.