☀️ Happy Thursday!

I’m double-dipping for today’s pick for our week dedicated to mind-bending sci-fi movies 🧬 and recommending another movie from director Alex Garland — see day 1.

Okay, here’s day 4️⃣.

Today’s movie: Ex Machina

STREAMING ON NETFLIX

What it’s about: Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), a software engineer at a Google-like corporation, wins a competition to spend a week with the company’s CEO (Oscar Isaac) at his remote mountain home. When Caleb arrives, he discovers that he’s there to help test out a highly sophisticated humanoid AI named Ava (Alicia Vikander).

Why it’s great: Ex Machina is the perfect kind of slow-burn. The kind that sets expectations, but then upends them at every turn just like the sleek and disorienting compound it takes place in. However, more importantly, it’s a movie about four fascinating characters interacting and circling each other in increasingly confounding ways. You don’t know anyone’s true intentions. But Garland is careful not to overplay his hand. The movie stays quiet and meditative throughout — until it’s not.

The key players:
🎬 Alex Garland
🖋 Alex Garland
🎭 Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Oscar Isaac, Sonoya Mizuno
The details: ⏳ 108 minutes // 🗓 2015 // 📺 Trailer
Fun fact: Ex Machina, which had a total budget of $15 million, won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects over four movies that each cost over $100 million to make — Mad Max: Fury Road, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Martian, and The Revenant.

Don’t have Netflix? Ex Machina is available to buy or rent on Prime Video, iTunes, and YouTube.

In movie news: MCU’s Kevin Feige is developing a new Star Wars movie

🌌 Even though Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is meant to be a bookend to the original George Lucas trilogy, that’s not stopping Disney from churning out more movies. In somewhat surprising news, Kevin Feige — the architect for the Marvel Cinematic Universe — is going to develop a new movie for Lucasfilms with Kathleen Kennedy.

Some context: Kennedy has been the head of Lucasfilms since 2012 and has been in charge of planning out the future of the franchise — including the new trilogy and spin-off films. However, after the absurd fan reaction to The Last Jedi and the lackluster performance of Solo, Disney — they own both Marvel and Lucasfilms — is probably looking for a fresh start.

One more day until the weekend! If you have a suggestion for a theme or a movie recommendation, let me know by replying to any email.

See you tomorrow! 🎉
Karl (@karl_delo)

Mind-Bending Sci-Fi IV: Ex Machina 🤖