Domhnall Gleeson and Oscar Isaac standing in a small corridor looking serious in Ex Machina.Image via A24
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Alex Garland’s Ex Machina isn’t just a great sci-fi film — it’s one of the sharpest, most unsettling pieces of speculative storytelling of the 21st century. Nearly a decade after its release, the Oscar-winning thriller is finally getting the streaming push it has always deserved. Starting December 1, the acclaimed film will stream for free on Tubi, giving audiences a perfect excuse to revisit (or finally discover) one of the most talked-about AI dramas ever made.
Released in 2015, Ex Machina follows Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), a quiet but brilliant programmer who wins a mysterious company lottery granting him a week inside the isolated research facility of his CEO, Nathan (Oscar Isaac). Once there, Caleb is asked to evaluate Ava (Alicia Vikander), a groundbreaking humanoid AI whose emotional intelligence and eerie self-awareness quickly blur the line between test subject and real woman. What begins as an experiment soon spirals into manipulation, power games, and a moral maze with no easy exits.
Garland’s film was praised on release for its minimalist world-building, razor-tight tension, and its intimate, three-character psychological warfare. Vikander’s performance earned her an Academy Award nomination, and the film ultimately won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects — a win that still surprises viewers when they realize just how small and quiet the movie is compared to typical VFX-heavy blockbusters. It sits at an impressive 92% on Rotten Tomatoes.
How Good Is 'Ex Machina'?
Collider's Perri Nemiroff reviewed the movie at SXSW in 2015, and she was a huge fan of what she saw from Garland's debut outing:
"Clearly Garland set out to deliver a deeply character-driven A.I. film and picking apart her programming could have steered it in a different direction, but the idea is so surprisingly grounded that that’s what I was most interested in.
Ex Machina is a strong feature and a huge achievement in a number of ways. There’s a surprising amount of very effective humor courtesy of Isaac’s character, there’s an extremely riveting scenario at the core of the film, and there’s also tons of stunning visual work to admire as well. But, for an exceptionally unique and layered character study, Ex Machina has a surprisingly minimal amount of humanity and that keeps the film from striking a chord on a deeper level and having a lasting effect."
Ex Machina drops on Tubi on December 1.
Ex Machina
Like R Sci-Fi Drama Release Date April 10, 2015 Runtime 108 minutes Director Alex Garland Writers Alex GarlandCast
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Alicia Vikander
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Domhnall Gleeson
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