Chris Noonan's zesty, loveable story of a lonely piglet's path to acceptance and then glory at a bucolic farm remains a genuine example of that rare beast: the great family movie. In that sense, along with a gruff sheep dog (voiced by Hugo Weaving) and maddening sheep, it is a particularly Australian experience, even if the farming milieu has British overtones for an American audience. James Cromwell is the stoic farmer, with Magda Szubanski as a comic matriarch, but it's the old-fashioned filmmaking skills that make the wide circle of animals into engaging characters that supplies the standout performances. A brittle, telling invocation of masculinity told through the lens of near future science-fiction, Ex Machina thrusts humble programmer Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) into the physically and mentally isolated world of Nathan (Oscar Isaac), his code savant boss who has retreated into the lab to create an artificial intelligence. The result is Ava (Alicia Vikander), a mix of moulded polymers and glowing cable shaped into a female form but rightly possessed of otherworldly instincts.