Ex Machina and Sexy Naked Ladies
by thethreepennyguignol
So, I saw Ex Machina today. And it was an okay film: I’m slightly surprised by the number of people hailing at as one of the best science fiction films in recent memory, with insta-classics like Looper, District 9, and Moon on the proverbial radar, but sure, it was fine.
Following the story of twenty-someting coder Caleb (Domnhall Gleeson) after he’s invited to the home of reclusive tech genius Nathan (an electric Oscar Isaac), the plot revolves around Caleb’s interactions with Nathan’s latest creation: a high-functioning robot called Ava (played by an otherworldly, nuanced, slightly calculating Alicia Vikander). Nathan encourages Caleb to conduct a kind of Turing test to establish the validity of the AI he’s created, and Caleb finds himself drawn to the intelligent and beautiful Ava. Predictable shenanigans ensue.
I don’t want to talk about the actual plot of the film, because there wasn’t much there that hasn’t been explored before. I want to talk about the gender roles present in Ex Machina, because that’s probably the most interesting part of the whole film: Isaac’s Nathan literally bulges with muscles and masculinity and sexual virility, while Gleeson is his nervous, baby-faced counterpart. And in the middle of them is Ava; half beautiful woman and half visible machine, she’s both alluring and off-putting, both an actor and the acted upon.
The film did piss me off quite a bit with the sheer amount of uncalled for female nudity shown on-screen (the award for the science-fiction movie with most landing strips goes to…) especially when compared to the amount of male nudity we got (none). There’s no doubt that writer-director Alex Garland was critiquing the male ego (Isaac sees himself as an infallible God figure who creates and literally discards women as he needs them, while Domnhall Gleeson swings in as a white-knight saviour for Ava. Both, ultimately, fail) in Ex Machina, but it begs the question: where’s the line between gratuitous and necessary nudity in a film with these kinds of gender-based themes?
By showing a bunch of female nudity, Garland puts himself in a difficult position. He’s both inviting us to question the way that these women-robots are portrayed, used and viewed by the men in the film, and inviting us to ogle them along with his leading characters. The camera lingers voyeuristically on ex-ballet dance Vikander’s naked body when she covers herself in skin for the first time, while the fully-nude bodies of other female robots- deactivated, sterile, dead- line the cupboards behind her. Kyoto, the subservient robot that Nathan keeps around the house for sex and housework, drapes herself naked on Caleb’s bed. And the problem with it isn’t that nudity should be censored entirely; it’s that, by showing this nudity, Garland isn’t actually adding much to the film. If he’d implied the nudity, it would have been just as powerful and effective. In a film without a great deal of violence but with very adult themes and ideas, nudity seems to be the go-to to earn this a “grown-up” status. If the movie had been balanced with more male nudity, it might have at least made more sense- as Russel T Davies recently pointed out, we’re kind of squeamish about films and TV shows that show penises in all their glory-but by making the nudity solely focused on female characters, it undermines some of the interesting things it has to say about gender and sexuality.
I think what it comes down to is that the nudity didn’t actually add anything to the plot. Sure, Alicia Vikander is a beautiful young woman, and her naked body is a lovely sight, but showing it didn’t bring any new dimension to her character that wasn’t already covered. And that went for all the female characters who went naked in the film: their nakedness was there, at best, to supplement character points that had been established well enough earlier on and at worst, for apparent titillation.
I’m not going to outright accuse Ex Machina of sexism, because I actually don’t think it was a sexist film; on the contrary, it had a lot of quite nuanced ideas about sexuality and how we perceive it buried amongst the standard sci-fi fare. I think the problematic side of it came down to an inability to deploy nudity in an impactful way, in a way that developed and added something to it’s characters. And nudity for nudity’s sake- in a film that was, in a lot of ways, an adult, thematically relevant, and intelligent picture- doesn’t make anyone look like more of a grown-up.
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The Cutprice Guignol 
I agree with your overall review of Ex Machina. While I found the plot interesting, I did not find it novel or groundbreaking and the pacing slowed almost to a halt in a few places, notably the discussion of the Jackson Pollack analogy.
I was surprised as well, at how stellar the reviews for this film were overall with little to no mention of a ridiculous amount of gratuitous of female nudity.
Frankly, I was sickened by it. I am so tired of nudity being a requirement for women in almost every film and it is so common that it barely is even mentioned in most reviews I read about this film. It really is nothing short of soft porn that has been successfully normalized into mainstream media.
Yes, I found a lot of the glowing reviews kind of surprising, considering that the film was just good, not amazing. And the nudity had me rolling my eyes quite a nit. Thanks for commenting!
I am surprised at your critique on the female nudity. I am sure you say the same thing about movies that have male nudity and actually show male genitalia while I have yet to see an R rated movie actually show female genitalia.
I have no issue with a film showing nudity of either gender if it’s plot relevant, and I felt that the nudity in Ex Machina wasn’t called for. I’d have said the same thing if there had been pointless male nudity too.
It was called for. It showed how the inventor used his creations. The nudity is more relevant to the plot than the vast majority of other movies with nudity.
I’ll certainly concede your second point, but implied nudity would have been just as powerful.
Alex Garland wrote Nathan to be a reclusive genius, and as a recluse who is heterosexual. The somewhat brief displays of nudity fit in nicely, explaining to Caleb’s character and the audience, what type of person Nathan is. The sense of a hidden agenda is introduced and unveiled as a timely climax. Garland uses the nudity you say that is not implied for exactly the purpose of implying a devious host.
You do not mention the philosophical discussions about humans and AI, which are intended to ensue after the movie’s viewing. I would think that a sex scene with Nathan and Kyoto would have been unnecessary. I’m sure Garland could fit it in if he wanted, considering he is a creative and talented writer(and now director).
I would like to bring attention to the dance scene. Enjoy!
To be clear, I have seen the movie. And I know exactly what the nudity was trying to imply, but it also undermined other points the movie was going to make, explicitly, the things it had to say about the male gaze.
I think that nudity was central to the plot. For example, why would AVA bother to put on a skin if it wasn’t important to her?
Secondarily, i thought the graphic nature of the nudity was also key; we are experiencing this through the eyes of the protagonist. He is keenly aware that these are robots but the realness is as confronting to him as it is to us. Hide it, and we do not feel his confrontation so personally.
I was so offended at the nudity in EX MACHINA I made a custom edit with just the nudity:
https://archive.org/details/EMNJCb
You may have misread the article- I’m not offended by the nudity, I just think it’s totally pointless.
Thank you for your review. I just saw the movie and found the ending confusing, as well as some lingering feelings of sexism, due to the fact that all the robots were female. None were male. The nudity didn’t bother me whatsoever, and in fact I felt it was totally necessary to show that some of the robots were farther alone in development than Ava, even if they had been earlier prototypes. He had gone so far as to develop realistic skin and hair. That was an important part of the movie, and Ava’s eventual escape. Nudity doesn’t bother me because I’m an artist and draw and paint nudity all the time. It’s nothing to me. I don’t think it’s something to focus on in the movie, but I was puzzled by the need to make the robot appear to be female in the first place, when it was “just a machine”.
I thought the sexism was an intentional reflection of silicon valley culture. IE many of the people creating AI are people that marginalize and final to understand half of humanity, and thus their creations will reflect that.