Nerd in the 'Noke

The Danish Girl (2015), R, 119 minutes - My plans for this past week were to have an Academy Awards cram session and knock off the remaining major Oscar nominees that I had not yet seen.  Things ended up being a bit busier than I had originally planned (I really should just come to expect that), and I was only able to get through two:  Room and this film, a kinda-sorta-but not really biographical drama based on the lives of Danish painters Einer and Gerda Wegener.  I know that sounds a little whacky, but apparently the film is based on David Ebershoff's 2000 novel of the same name, which from what I've read on the web is actually a work of fiction that was loosely inspired by the lives of the artistic couple.   This film from director Tom Hooper is a representation of Einer and Gerda's lives from a young, happily married couple, through Einer's discovery of his more feminine side (which came to be known as Lili), to his embracing Lili as his identity of choice ...

Ex Machina (2015), R, 108 minutes - I know that it is only May - ok, the end of May - but so far this year, this is my 'best film that not enough people have seen'.  Unfortunately, I'm not helping change that much as it has now cycled out of theaters (at least in my area).  Because of scheduling of show times, it took me a couple weeks to get to see it myself, and then I've been dragging my feet getting around to this review. Ex Machina utilizes a minimal cast led by Oscar Isaac and Domhnall Gleeson to explore the possibilities of true artificial intelligence (AI).  Caleb (Gleeson) is a programmer for a tech development firm who wins a drawing to spend a week with the company's founder Nathan (Isaac) at his remote estate.  After arriving, Caleb he learns that the real reason for the drawing was not to reward an employee with a week long meet and greet with Nathan, but to help in the testing process for his latest project: an AI he calls Ava (Alicia Vikander). ...