Machine girl movie review

Real science fiction is about ideas, which means that real science fiction is rarely seen on movie screens, a commercially minded canvas that's more at ease with sensation and spectacle. What you more often get from movies is something that could be called "science fiction-flavored product"—a work that has a few of the superficial trappings of the genre, such as futuristic production design and somewhat satirical or sociological observations about humanity, but that eventually abandons its pretense for fear of alienating or boring the audience and gives way to more conventional action or horror trappings, forgetting about whatever made it seem unusual to begin with. It starts out as an ominous thriller about a young programmer Domhnall Gleeson orbiting a charismatic Dr. Frankenstein-type Oscar Isaac and slowly learning that the scientist's zeal to create artificial intelligence has a troubling, even sickening personal agenda. But even as the revelations pile up and the screws tighten and you start to sense that terror and violence are inevitable, the movie never loses grip on what it's about; this is a rare commercial film in which every scene, sequence, composition and line deepens the screenplay's themes—which means that when the bloody ending arrives, it seems less predictable than inevitable and right, as in myths, legends and Bible stories.

There may not be a more potent cinegeek buzz than discovering a new filmmaker with a fully formed voice and vision right out of the gate. And folks who haunt the sidebars of film festivals may have caught some of her shorts, notably her portraiture Atlantiques. Just watch this movie. This is what cinema looks like. A group of young construction workers are arguing with their boss. They kiss in a secluded section of the boardwalk and make plans to meet that night at the local club.

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