18. Ex Machina
This movie tops when it comes to science fiction, a laboratory in which weighty philosophical and allegorical concepts are explored within genre entertainment. Alex Garland portrays grasp that balance in his quietly dazzling directorial debut. Set in a highly controlled, stylized environment, we can observe the interactions of its three principals minutely, he orchestrates “Ex Machina’s investigation of identity, misogyny and power relationships with the precision of a safecracker, aided by a trio of tremendously assured, committed performances. Most centrally, Alicia Vikander continues her imperial phase and Domhnall Gleeson confirms his value as an actor. It’s a chilling, taut, precisely calibrated movie, so well-engineered that it feels almost like the product of artificial intelligence itself.