There are genius scripts, and then there are scripts that are obviously written by genius. Ex Machina is an example of the latter.
In this film, we get one of the most pensive takes on consciousness and science. Written and directed by Alex Garland, it takes a lot out of you, but it's worth it in the end.
Looking deeply into the reality of artificial intelligence, Ex Machina follows Caleb (Domhall Gleeson), a computer coder who wins a contest to live at his billionaire boss' estate for a week. When he gets there, his boss, Nathan (Oscar Isaac), informs him that he will be part of a project to test if an artificial intelligent being can form relationships with actual humans.
One thing that Isaac excels exceptionally well at is being mysterious. Right away, we're scared of him, but not sure why, or if we're even supposed to be. He balances this eeriness while having a charisma about him. Not like Gordon Gekko, but in a way that shows the vulnerability behind his eyes. As though Isaac, too, knows of his character's vices.
The artificial human we're given is Ava (Alicia Vikander), who, other than her looks, is a real human to us. Vikander's every move and vocal inflection convinces us that she is real. And if you haven't already seen The Man from U.N.C.L.E., you may actually think she is.
While many moments in this film will leave you thinking that it would be well suited as a '90s Sci-Fi Channel film, others will let you know that this film belongs in mainstream popular culture in every way.
The only downfall of this movie is that it's so dark it isolates itself from its audience. It hits home, but makes us want no part of it. It tells of too many potential truths. Too many horrors. It's one thing watching I, Robot, but it's another to make us believe that somewhere out there, someone is making an artificially intelligent being who may soon walk this earth. It's a fantastic watch, and a phenomenal movie, but not one I would soon repeat.
Twizard Rating: 100
The Revenant is truly something to behold. It's beautifully shot and maybe even more impressively directed. This could have easily gone awry in the wrong director's hands, but Alejandro Iñárritu makes it look too easy.
Leonardo DiCaprio plays a fur trapper in the American Northwest in 1823. He and his crew are on the run after escaping a Native American ambush. One day, after going off on his own, he is attacked and savagely injured by a grizzly bear in a scene that will stay with you for a very long time. It might be one of the most intense sequences in film history. Nearly dying, he is deemed, by Tom Hardy's character, as too risky to be carried along with them, so Hardy leaves DiCaprio to die.
The film is really long, but riveting. Not once does your mind wander to something else. Scene after scene is like nothing you've seen before.
This film is about revenge, but it's also about moral decisions. It's never preachy, but those who wish to get something out of it will. It's hard to watch, but completely rewarding in the end. And there may have never been such a dark film that is also this beautiful to look at.
Tom Hardy, while audibly incomprehensible at times, plays grimly sadistic to perfection. From the beginning, he walks around like nothing ever bad is going to happen to him. He's cocky, but there's something subtle in his tone that makes you believe that he's unsure of himself subconsciously--even though he thinks no one notices. Perhaps they don't.
It's a no brainer that DiCaprio has given the best performance of the year, even if just for his commitment to making his character real. The film is shot in actual freezing temperatures and throughout the entire thing you really do feel his pain--just from the piercing cold itself. He's in a league of his own with this one.
But if we're going to talk about commitment, we must also discuss Iñárritu's insistence that there will be no green screen used and everything that happens will be happening for real. Last year, Iñárritu's film Birdman won the Oscar for Best Picture. This is a step even above that. Birdman was filmed in a controlled setting. Watching The Revenant, you feel like everyone on set is playing with fire. The fact that they get a breathtaking film out of it is superbly impressive.
Twizard Rating: 100
This is an odd case, in my opinion. It's a simple story--a romantic drama to be exact--and it's nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. It's not the type of film you'd think would be nominated in this category. It's great, sure, but the Academy usually recognizes either groundbreaking films or controversial films--nowadays at least. This one is neither. But that should just show you how strong of a film it is.
Much like 2009's An Education, Brooklyn is very low concept. It's not controversial, it's not political, it's not even all that original. But it hits its audience in a sensitive place with its charm about a topic that we can all relate to--love.
Brooklyn, starring Saoirse Ronan and Emory Cohen, follows an Irish immigrant, Eilis (Ronan), as she comes to the United States seeking new opportunity. We see pretty early on that she is a selfless person--always doing community service and being involved in her church. Although she comes from a privileged background, Eilis doesn't look down on anyone. But she's very shy and doesn't know how to talk to new people. Men flirt with her, but she just turns the other way. That is, until, she meets Tony (Cohen), an uneducated Italian-American plumber, who develops an immediate attraction to her.
This is where the film really gets going, though it comes in a little later than we'd like. However, we don't terribly mind since we love getting the "immigrant trying to make it in America" portion of the story as well. It helps to round out the film. The filmmakers know that they can't just make a 2 hour love story without bordering on vanity, so they don't try to fool us and do it anyway.
Tony has a simple outlook on life. He's a dreamer, but lacks confidence. Even before he really knows why, he loves Eilis whole-heartedly. They bring the best out of each other. But what makes their relationship so real is how they better one another when they're apart. Although arguably less shy than Tony, Eilis now handles herself with more confidence and starts getting along with others even better.
I'm not sure I've seen on-screen chemistry like I have in this film. Ronan and Cohen are immaculate together. And that's a true attribution to their performances. The two of them have so much depth both together and apart. Cohen is convincing in showing us the non-stereotypical vulnerability of Tony. And with the help of Ronan's outstanding performance, you can see what's going on in Eilis' mind without her saying too much. It's her decisions that give her the most depth.
Brooklyn is relatable on so many levels. It's also about leaving home and that transition to recognizing home as somewhere new.
The city of Brooklyn is nice to look at in its own right in the early 1950s, but Ireland is even prettier. Luckily, the filmmakers recognize this and take us back there one last time.
You don't often see people fawning over a film that simply romanticize love, but it's the earnestness and simplicity of Brooklyn that tugs at our strings the most. Without ever feeling contrived, it restores confidence in something that we may often take for granted in this day and age.
Twizard Rating: 99
If you're itching to see a masterpiece in film, then go out and watch Room. It's the perfect example of filmmaking that doesn't dumb itself down for its audience. And at the same time, it isn't highbrow or overly complicated.
Room starts out in a padded room with a young boy, Jack (Jacob Tremblay), and his mother, Joy (Brie Larson), lying in a bed together. We're not sure why they're there at first. But eventually we figure things out. Joy was abducted 7 years prior and Jack is her son by her captor.
Joy is a normal mother. She loves her son. She get's annoyed by him from time to time, just as a normal mother would. Everything is not hunky-dory, but the two of them are content there with each other. Or at least Jack is. You can sense, in Joy's eyes, that she is hiding pain. Jack doesn't know of anything that's happened. He knows of no world beyond those walls.
It's not until about 25 minutes in where we realize what's going on. But we don't mind because the journey there is just as riveting. The plot is revealed very slowly, as the filmmakers let us figure things out on our own, and do well not to spell things out for us. They don't assume the audience is stupid--at least those who are willing to commit to the storytelling. Nothing is ever stated, but we have a grasp on background and character dynamics due to brilliant exposition.
Room is slow, I admit, but consistent. Director, Lenny Abrahamson knows what he's doing at all times. Besides getting fantastic performances from his leads, I'm thrilled with every choice he makes. From what he includes to what he omits, he understands what's necessary for us to get as organic of an experience possible. This movie could very well be depressing, but it intentionally never stays in one place long enough to do so.
Larson is something to behold in this film. She's pretty much gives as flawless of a performance that anyone possibly can. It's perhaps the best female performance I've ever seen. And Tremblay, for a child, is extremely believable the whole way through.
The film is ultimately about moving on. And that process can be long and drawn out and never-ending. There are times while watching this film when we ask ourselves how it will end. Not because we want it to, but because we're not even sure how any ending would be enough. But then we find out we're not looking for an ending at all, but a beginning.
Twizard Rating: 100
If ever there was a film that typifies the last 10 years, it's The Big Short. It's filmmaking in its quickest form. And much credit goes to director Adam McKay, who has made a film so rapid fire that it even makes Vince Vaughn stop to catch his breath. It mirrors what goes on in today's multi-tasking society. But also what Wall Street has been doing for decades.
Connecting three stories without much crossover, The Big Short deals with what led to the financial crash of 2008 and the radical few who had the wisdom and the gall to see it coming and act upon it.
It starts with Christian Bales' character, Dr. Michael Burry, a Silicon Valley hedge fund manager who spots an instability in the United States housing market, predicting that the market will collapse in a few years. Much to his investors' dismay, he goes out and bets against the housing market--something that apparently you just don't do--by purchasing $500 million in credit default swaps. Many others catch wind of this, but only several are keen enough to spot the method to Burry's madness.
The film tries and succeeds at making a dry topic appeal to the audience it wants. There's a lot of technical jargon, but McKay makes it easy for us to stay in the loop by doing unusual things like have "Margot Robbie in a bubble bath explain it to you". These celebrities explaining things happens a few times throughout the film for our enjoyment. McKay has such an unorthodox way of filmmaking, but it works here. Characters break the fourth wall about a dozen times, and he enjoys flooding the screen with intercut stills. It's actually very highbrow, but never makes us realize it.
It has a mockumentary feel to it at times, which explains why Steve Carell makes sense here. He plays Mark Baum, a Wall Street hedge fund manager who gets approached by Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling) to invest in this whole credit default swap thing.
A third story revolves around these two young investors who happen to get wind of Gosling's plan. They contact Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt), their financial advisor, who helps back the idea.
Each sub story is just as entertaining as the others, so you're never sitting there waiting for so-and-so to come back on screen. You never think about the fact that they're gone, but realize you missed them when they come back.
It's a powerful film, even though it might not seem like it is. It never strays from its point just to get a laugh. Each laugh feels deserved and the humor organic. And with a killer soundtrack (especially if you were a teenager during those years), it's definitely one of the best films of the year.
Twizard Rating: 98
Kevin Hart is an interesting case. He's hilariously funny when it comes to his standup. But filmmakers have yet to figure out what to do with him in film. With his best performances being Think Like a Man and Get Hard, you start to think about what they did right. Think Like a Man's strength is that it doesn't hyper focus on any one of its well-balanced leads. And with Get Hard--both Hart's and Will Ferrell's best films in awhile--you have to credit the fact that they both get to take the stage. They both act as the straight man AND the comic foil. But after a failed attempt the first time around, we are offered a second installment in the Ride Along series.
The original Ride Along from 2014 already had audiences feeling like it was just an excuse to make a movie where Hart acts ridiculous, much to Ice Cube's unamusement. And this one is no different. The sequel has a slightly better storyline than its predecessor, but not by much. It copies a lot of the formula from the original.
In this movie, Hart plays Ben, a preliminary detective about to get married. His brother-in-law-to-be, head detective James (Cube), takes him along on a case in Miami to show Ben how he isn't cut out to be in the field.
Hackneyed comedy isn't the only thing that's cliche about this film. Overused tropes are flying left and right. From every one of Ice Cube's foreseen reactions, to the typical action movie lines: "[Villain] is hosting a party tonight at his mansion. Everyone's expected to be there" or "I'll distract him while you go in."
There are a few laughs scattered throughout. The opening sequence, featuring Tyrese and a bunch of street racers, is the best part of the movie. But Hart just doesn't have anyone to play off of comedically the rest of the way. It's just him doing all the romping. The few moments he has with Ken Jeong are nice, but that's about it. Ice Cube is his definite straight man. And a pretty good one too, as evident with the Jump Street series. But the truth is, Hart is so over-the-top all the time that he almost doesn't even need a straight man. It's already extremely obvious he's being ridiculous that it's nearly insulting that we need someone else to point it out too. When everything around him is too serious, Hart's antics become less believable.
There's nothing definitively bad about this film. It hits all its marks. Almost too well. And that's what makes it blend in with the crowd. This by-the-numbers comedy may not be painful, but it's definitely forgettable.
Twizard Rating: 64
The movie that made us know Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn will surely not disappoint. It's humor is unique to the two leads, and is organic in the sense that it hits home for them. They believe what's happening because they lived it.
Written by Favreau and loosely based on he and Vaughn's life and friendship, Swingers is about a group of struggling actors who are involved in the '90s Hollywood swing revival. It follows Mike (Favreau), a New York native who can't get over his ex-girlfriend. But his friends, most notably Trent (Vaughn), try getting him out of his depression by forcing him back out onto the playing field.
Both leads are fantastic. Vaughn wows the audience with his unique brand of fast-talking humor. And Favreau is so convincing as a wallowing sad sack that you genuinely feel bad for the guy.
The scene towards the beginning where the pair of friends go to Las Vegas sets the tone for the entire movie. It establishes a style that is vehemently consistent throughout.
Swingers has everything that will make you want to drive to Los Angeles and Las Vegas right this second. It ties together the glitz and glamour of both cities, seamlessly connecting the two. But I think what captures the neon vibe of the film's locations is the juxtaposition of failing to make it. This failure, of course, isn't stressed. It's still opportunity. It's optimism.
Neither Mike nor Trent have had much success in the industry, but Trent is still having the time of his life, while Mike's only reason to be down on himself is his breakup. The film paints a perfect portrait of confident mediocrity, and being complacent with it.
The story's exposition takes its time, but in a perfect way. Every scene has a sincere purpose and contributes to establishing the depth of its characters. But it's beyond just the characters. A movie is refreshingly good if even the circumstances have depth. In fact, that's when it's great.
Twizard Rating: 97
