Scenes and visuals such as the creation of the body reminiscent of Ghost in the Shell or waterfalls around a loner's AI research facility like in Ex Machina may seem like a usual Homage to these works at first. However, after The Reveal, there is additionally an in-universe explanation: George fills his dream with images he has seen in movies about robot sentience.
Similarly, the muted color palette, incoherent phone conversations, certain aspects of the tone, unexplained technical failures and events, the ominous wolf scene, and the crumbling realism are dreamlike because it's a dream.
