Ex Machina by Alex Garland, 2015 (R)

with Oscar Isaac, Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson

Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson) a programmer at a huge Internet company, wins a contest that enables him to spend a week at the private estate of Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac), his firm's brilliant CEO. When he arrives, Caleb learns that he has been chosen to be the human component in a Turing test to determine the capabilities and consciousness of Ava (Alicia Vikander), a beautiful robot. However, it soon becomes evident that Ava is far more self-aware and deceptive than either man imagined.

Ex Machina is a disturbing experiment that puts you in the most high tech setting, in the middle of the purest of nature, with a feeling of claustrophobia combined with a manipulating and brilliant script that bounce you from one vision to its opposite the moment you start believing in it, keeping you alert until the very end. It is disturbing as the robots are more humane than the humans, and the performance of Alicia Vikander is quite extraordinary in making us shift from our perception of her as a human to little by little seeing her as a humanoid. I do hope they get the Oscar for Best Script.

I Origins by Mike Cahill, 2014 (R)

I ORIGINS, the second feature film from writer and director Mike Cahill, tells the story of Dr. Ian Gray (Michael Pitt), a molecular biologist studying the evolution of the eye. He finds his work permeating his life after a brief encounter with an exotic young woman (Astrid Bergès-Frisbey) who slips away from him. As his research continues years later with his lab partner Karen (Brit Marling), they make a stunning scientific discovery that has far reaching implications and complicates both his scientific and spiritual beliefs. Traveling half way around the world, he risks everything he has ever known to validate his theory.

Interesting, definitely. The idea, not too far from perhaps Cloud Atlas, in a very different prism, talks about the connectedness and the intricate relationship we can have with random people, but also about science, and evolution. It is tricky, as the project is ambitious and the production still small. And mostly perhaps because it tends to mislead the audience into what we are going to get from the movie. The main character, performed by Michael Pitt, can be confusing, and I wonder if this is not a deliberate choice that they chose him in particular to confuse us, since Michael Pitt previous roles in movies are a little unsettling, from psychopath to unbalanced men. Of course Brit Marling is really good, I am always amazed by how natural her characters come to her, she is an amazing actress. Astrid Bergès-Frisbey is annoying, and a little cliché, which breaks the magic. The rest of the cast is impeccable, and as expected from his previous movie Another Earth, despite a big topic of science and fiction, he maintains a character driven movie with beautiful imagery.

with Michael Pitt (The Dreamers), Brit Marling (The Company You Keep, Another Earth), Steven Yeun, Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, Archie Panjabi, William Mapother (Lost, Another Earth), Cara Seymour (An Education, Jack and Diane), Venida Evans

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Frequencies (OXV: The Manual) by Darren Paul Fisher, 2013

In an alternate reality where "frequencies" determine one's level of success in life, low-end Zak falls for Marie, who's much farther up the scale. Complicating things further, their difference means Zak can only see Marie one minute a year.

The theory in which the movie is departing is interesting. The topic develops into an impossible love story as well as a scientific experiment, teasing our curiosity on how they will solve the impossible case, implying more and more for the humanity and the danger of changing the order of things. It is logical all the way, although the character of the best friend of Zak goes a little bit too far beyond the theme, making it a melting pot of theories and loosing the audience from the one theme they had strong and creating holes in the theory. Overall, it is an original script and film, with a great cast.

with Daniel Fraser, Eleanor Wyld, Owen Pugh, David Broughton-Davies, Dylan Llewellyn, Georgina Minter-Brown, Tom England, Charlie Rixon, Lily Laight, Ethan Turton

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The Hunger Games: Catching Fire by Francis Lawrence, 2013 (PG-13)

with Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games, Winter's Bone, Silver Linings Playbook, X-Men: First Class, The Beaver), Josh Hutcherson (The Kids are All Right), Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson (The Messenger, Now You See Me, Game Change), Elizabeth Banks (The Hunger Games, Man on a Ledge, Our Idiot Brother, The Next Three Days, People Like Us), Lenny Kravitz (Precious), Stanley Tucci (The Company You Keep, Margin Call, Captain America: The First Avenger, Julie and Julia), Sam Claflin (Snow White and the Huntsman), Donald Sutherland (The Italian Job), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Moneyball, The Master), Paula Malcomson, Willow Shields
Part 2 of The Hunger Games from the director of Constantine

The film begins as Katniss Everdeen has returned home safe after winning the 74th Annual Hunger Games along with fellow tribute Peeta Mellark. Winning means that they must turn around and leave their family and close friends, embarking on a "Victor's Tour" of the districts. Along the way Katniss senses that a rebellion is simmering, but the Capitol is still very much in control as President Snow prepares the 75th Annual Hunger Games (The Quarter Quell) - a competition that could change Panem forever.

Exhilarating. Beautiful. And most important, sticking to the book. Which I found really good. I enjoyed reading the trilogy after watching the first of the trilogy Hunger Games. The tone evolves to a lesser entertaining and deeper theme of a society where the rules of totalitarianism are shaking, and the characters become more complex, defined, and therefor more interesting. The first one was a basic survival story. The second one is about breaking the rules, playing the system, thinking a little bit more of a strategy of longer term. The third part is mostly about waiting and thinking. So in this trilogy, the teachings are definitely about establishing a plan, short term, middle term, and finally long term. And you can see through the eyes of Katniss little by little that she is making the journey that already before her, many wiser people have made, definitely not something we tend to teach these days, as it has all become about short term, problem solving society.

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Seeking a Friend for the End of the World by Lorene Scafaria, 2012 (R)

with Steve Carell (Hope Springs, Crazy Stupid Love, Dan In Real Life, Get Smart), Keira Knightley (Anna Karenina, A Dangerous Method, Never Let Me Go, Love Actually), Connie Britton, Adam Brody (Thank you for Smoking), Rob Corddry, Gillian Jacobs, Derek Luke, Melanie Lynskey (The Informant!, Up in the Air, The Perks of Being a Wallflower), T.J. Miller (Our Idiot Brother, How To Train A Dragon, Unstoppable), Mark Moses, Patton Oswalt (Young Adult), William L. Petersen

Set in a too-near future, the movie explores what people will do when humanity's last days are at hand. As the respective journeys of Dodge (Mr. Carell) and Penny (Ms. Knightley) converge, the two spark to each other and their outlooks - if not the world's - brighten.

A very cute romantic comedy that reconciled me with Keira Knightley after a long time disapproving her overacting drama choices. She can actually be funny, and fast and witty. Therefor charming. I think Steve Carell always lost in translation kind of guy suits him well, although I don't believe he will ever be better than in "Dan In Real Life". The story is set with a timer and flows in a natural way till its end, which sorts of differs from "Melancholia" or "4:44 Last Day on Earth" and the feeling of precipitation to the end. It feels like the way movies end with happy ending and exiting the theater thinking this is their ending, never thinking how the next years of their lives might be altered by family drama, economy, weather and else. This is an actual ending. Blackout.

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Perfect Sense (The Last Word) by David Mackenzie, 2011 (R)

with Ewan McGregor (Amelia, Haywire, The Men Who Stare At Goats, I Love You Phillip Morris, The Ghost Writer, Salmon Fishing In Yemen), Eva Green (Dark Shadows, The Dreamers), Ewen Bremner, Stephen Dillane, Denis Lawson, Anamaria Marinca, Alastair Mackenzie, Connie Nielsen, Katy Engels, Richard Mack

People around the world are being infected. First the grief, then smell is gone. As loss of one sense leads to another, people are stripped of the lives that they once knew. Chaos ensues whilst a young couple try to begin a relationship.

The story is amazing. It is a sort of apocalyptic vision of humanity, going through stages, which define the human being, both from the point of view of our hormones and out nervous system. It is from the perspective of a relationship that was born from the apocalypse, and grows as their senses become more limited, and perhaps essential. The acting is good, although I always find difficult to like the tortured roles of Eva Green (reminds me of my Emo time as a teenager...). I always find narration difficult to integrate to movies, it always look like an artifice that is used to simplify the work of the director. I realized this time the narration was beautiful, poetic, suitable to the tone of the story, except perhaps for the last shot where I felt it was unnecessary, due to the context.

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Men in Black II by Barry Sonnenfeld, 2002 (PG-13)

with Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith, Lara Flynn Boyle, Rip Torn, Patrick Warburton, Rosario Dawson (Love In The Time of Money, Unstoppable), Tony Shalhoub, Johnny Knoxville

Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones reprise their roles as Jay and Kay, two highly secretive, highly funded and highly unofficial government agents dealing with all things evil and alien -- including "outing" aliens living among us.

Same old story as Men In Black, guys saving the world. Which reminds me of Independance Day, Will Smith was the great savior for a while. This time, the girl to protect is so cute (Rosario Dawson) that even the sexiest woman they could find (Lara Flynn Boyle who since then pushed a lot for surgery) would not beat it. Anyway, interesting, funny again, except perhaps the exuberant dog. I loved the realization that a post office is the perfect place for aliens. Also, the reenactment program of the arrival of the light on earth is magical, very seventies. Finally, the subway scene, with people so used to emergency that no one reacts when Will Smith ask them to leave the wagon is very typical. The other day, someone had a heart attack on the other side of the wagon, so a guy started screaming and calling for a doctor. It took us at least 30 seconds to realize the guys was not just crazy and there was an emergency.
Next step this week was of course to watch Men In Black III!

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Melancholia by Lars von Trier, 2011 (R)

with Kirsten Dunst (All Good Things, The Virgin Suicides), Charlotte Gainsbourg, Alexander Skarsgård, Kiefer Sutherland, Brady Corbet, Cameron Spurr, Charlotte Rampling (Never Let Me Go), Jesper Christensen (The Debt), John Hurt (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Stellan Skarsgård (The girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Thor, Avengers), Udo Kier

This inventive drama charts the disintegrating relationship between newly married twentysomething Justine and her melancholy sister, Claire, just as Earth hurtles toward certain collision with a newly discovered planet.

The worse has been said (mostly from the directors) around this movie, which didn't make it too interesting to watch. It felt like promoting the wrong people. But on the other hand, it had this great departure point and the director's background is good enough that somehow the movie would become intriguing. So... The first half of the movie with the wedding of Claire was absolutely torture. The second half is the realization that the planet is most probably going to hit earth and the development of the characters at that point become very interesting. The cinematography is ok, interesting, not as surprising as you would think it could, lighting is good, some sort of intensified moon light. Anyway, interesting... Reminded me in a way of this new concept: science and fiction, as opposed to science fiction, in the movie "Another Earth" by Mike Cahill.

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Never Let Me Go by Mark Romanek, 2010 (R)

with Carey Mulligan (An Education, Shame), Andrew Garfield (The Social Network), Keira Knightley (Anna Karenina, A Dangerous Method), Isobel Meikle-Small, Ella Purnell, Charlie Rowe, Charlotte Rampling (Melancholia), Sally Hawkins (An Education), Kate Bowes Renna

Based on Kazuo Ishiguro's acclaimed novel, this sci-fi drama from director Mark Romanek is centered on thirtysomething Kathy (Carey Mulligan), who reflects on her time spent at Hailsham, an English boarding school, alongside classmates Ruth (Keira Knightley) and Tommy (Andrew Garfield). Born for an unusual reason, the three struggle with their destiny and their love triangle. Charlotte Rampling plays headmistress Miss Emily.

Carey Mulligan... I discovered her in "An Education", followed her in "Drive", finally in a different genre in "Shame". She's really good. I have more conflicts with Keira Knightley which I discovered and liked in "Pride and Prejudice" but then was deceived by her choices and last interpretation in "A Dangerous Method". Finally, the surprise came from Andrew Garfield that was in "The Social Network" and was metamorphosed in this movie into an amazingly sensitive character. The cast is really good, the story intriguing, to the point where you would like to know so much more about those boarding school which seems so realistic. I reminded me, not to spoil the surprise - oops -, to "The Island". Fascinating.

Another Earth by Mike Cahill, 2011

with William Mapother, Brit Marling (The Company You Keep), Jordan Baker, Flint Beverage, Robin Lord Taylor, Ana Kayne, Diane Ciesla, Matthew-Lee Erlbach, Meggan Lennon

Shortly after a strange, Earth-like planet is discovered, gifted astrophysics student Rhoda Williams (Brit Marling) accidentally slams her car into the vehicle of John Burroughs (William Mapother), killing his family. After some time, Rhoda and John begin an unlikely romance. But Rhoda starts to wonder what would happen if she could actually visit the new planet in director Mike Cahill's romantic sci-fi drama.

How would you react if something out of the ordinary happens on Earth. This movie is strangely connected to the last Lars Von Trier's "Melancholia", for its human and small scale perspective on a huge phenomenon, and also for the extraordinary event to be the only element of science fiction in a movie that in the end, is a drama, not science fiction.

Beautiful movie. It happens to be very simple, very real and on the other hand, something happens that is surreal. It is an extraordinary story of two ordinary people. The movie is made of close ups, sensitive shots charged with emotion, insecurity, beauty, poetry, humanism. And at the same time, the shot of the other earth is a reminded of how great the universe is, how bigger the perspective is and somehow how this little story relates so much to a greater picture.
This movie was unclassified, since it didn't belong entirely to "drama" or "science fiction". Some started developing the idea of "science and fiction". I liked it.

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