ThE PErFEcT BEaST
‘Ex Machina’
Oscar Isaac plays Nathan Bateman, a wealthy computer genius who has created something or someone named Ava (Alicia Vikander), a mind-bending hybrid of human and robot with a woman’s face and silhouette.
Unlike computers that cannot apply experience, logic or prediction to problem-solving, Ava seems capable of those skills. Young programmer Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson) is charged with helping to evaluate her abilities. But, as you may suspect, everything or everyone may not be what he, she, or it, seems.
While the film, directed by Alex Garland, who wrote the screenplay “28 Days Later,” revolves around three well-cast actors, Mr. Isaac is a standout as the enigmatic creator who sees himself as something of a god, who nevertheless gets drunk regularly (but exercises fiercely), and even shows an improbable flair for disco dancing.
It’s smart and disturbing and suspenseful, and you won’t be lost as you puzzle out what’s real, what’s robotic, and what we can or should get past.
Rated R for graphic nudity, language, sexual references and some violence.
— Post-Gazette
‘ThE SEcond BEST ExoTic Marigold hoTEl’ ½
“The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” is just that.
It’s second to the first movie about British pensioners who are lured to India’s Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for the Elderly and Beautiful, which promised elegant living at reasonable rates. The hotel was not as advertised, but almost everyone came to love it and their adopted home.
This time, returning director John Madden and writer Ol Parker seem determined to give audiences what they want or, perhaps, expect, and they also keep the story coming.
They layer in the Bollywood touches, with the possibility of romance at almost every turn, a dance that brings everyone to their feet, and all the colorful, photogenic trappings of a wedding celebration.
With the exception of Tom Wilkinson, everyone from the first movie is back — including Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Bill Nighy and Dev Patel — for this gentle, affirming and audiencepleasing story about later-in-life chances at work and, especially, love.
Rated PG for some language and suggestive comments.
— Post-Gazette
‘ThE longEST ridE’
“The Longest Ride” is the 10th movie based on a Nicholas Sparks novel, and while it’s not the best of the bunch, it is a vast improvement over some of the previous adaptations, which took the same tear-stained paths.
It tells the story of two couples whose lives intersect. The first couple is Sophia (Britt Robertson), a Wake Forest University senior who is anticipating a dream summer internship at a New York art gallery, and bull rider Luke (Scott Eastwood).
Everything about their first date is unconventional, from the picturesque picnic Luke arranges to the accident he spots on the way back. An auto has smashed through a guardrail and into a tree and caught fire, but Luke is able to rescue the driver, Ira (Alan Alda), while Sophia complies with his dazed request to grab a box from the car.
It holds Ira’s love letters to his wife, and as Sophia reads them to the hospitalized Ira, the story toggles between the past of young Ira (Jack Huston) and Ruth (Oona Chaplin), and the steamy romance between the art student and the bull rider.
“The Longest Ride,” directed by George Tillman Jr., is safe, sweet, predictable entertainment with handsome actors, beautiful countryside and the probability of some sort of fairy-tale ending.
Rated PG-13 for some sexuality, partial nudity, and some war and sports action.
— Post-Gazette