20 Best Films Of 2015

19. Ex Machina

Ex Machina is going to go on to be a sci-fi cult classic. Heck, it kinda already is, making waves bigger than it did upon first release by winning the BIFA for Best British Independent Film. But my point is, that with a cast including two of the stars of The Force Awakens and an actress destined for her first taste at awards hype next year (albeit not for the most deserving film), a director who's made himself a genre staple and a lean, pointed story, this is the sort of movie that will stand up in years to come and be looked back on as something pretty important. A three-way battle of wits between a near-human android, her creator and an outside party, the film is about the role of technology in modern lives and what that does to the very meaning of being human on, both a thematic and narrative level. The subtext is the text, but it never gets preachy or pretentious - it's a cerebral sci-fi in the ideas-driven vein of the '70s given a modern sheen. Alicia Vikander is the standout, her Ava presenting a facsimile of humanity that causes the audience to question her existence as much as Caleb does. This flawed Turing test is the whole point of the movie, but it's made to really work thanks to her electric, robotic performance.