Review: Ex Machina (2015)

* * * 1/2
Director: Alex Garland
Starring: Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Oscar Isaac

Word of advice: if an eccentric (and possibly insane) billionaire invites you to spend a week at his isolated, Bond villain style lair, even under the guise of it being the prize in a contest, don't go. Just don't. Nothing good will happen there. Especially if there are robots involved. Someone is going to die, there's no way around it. Best case scenario, you spend a week on an estate so vast that it takes over two hours to travel the length of it by helicopter, yet feels as claustrophobic as a prison cell. It makes for a bad vacation - but a pretty solid science fiction psychological thriller in the hands of writer/director Alex Garland.

Review: A Most Violent Year (2014)

* * *
Director: J.C. Chandor
Starring: Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain

J.C. Chandor's A Most Violent Year is a film about a man who wants to be good in a profession that demands he be corrupt, who wants to keep his hands clean even as they are continuously pulled down into the mud. It is an exceedingly handsome looking film, anchored by a terrific performance by Oscar Isaac playing a complex man at war on all sides - so why does it feel so inert? Chandor's previous film (and only his second directorial effort), All Is Lost, managed to be as dynamic as it was minimalist, stripping away everything right down to the dialogue, but even though A Most Violent Year has more meat wrapped around its bones, it still manages to feel just a bit hollow. It's a competently made, sometimes even compelling film, but its impact just isn't very deep.

Review: Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

* * * *
Director: Joel & Ethan Coen
Starring: Oscar Isaac

Midway through Inside Llewyn Davis someone threatens to put a curse on the eponymous folk musician. By the time the film winds its way to its final scene (I won't call it the "ending" due to the film's circular structure), you have to wonder if maybe Llewyn was experiencing a bit of deja vu because it sure seems like he's already been cursed, even if only by his own caustic personality. In their melancholy new film, the Coen brothers follow their protagonist from one desperate situation to another, the victim of both circumstances beyond his control and circumstances of his own making. He's not a "hero," exactly, but it's difficult not to feel some sympathy for him as the reverberations of his actions come back to smack him in the face over and over again, with no hint that it's going to let up anytime soon.