MUBI

Unlike most modern sci-fi where the terror comes from without, with any philosophical trappings lost to the crash of spectacle, the threat in Duncan Jones’ masterful Moon comes from within. Soaked in the mood and minutiae of genre classics from the Seventies and early Eighties.

And Jones is bold with his references. The story of astronaut Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) coming to the end of a three-year contract lunar mining for alternate fuel is unique, yet wholly familiar. A keen eye will pick out the Bruce Dern hippy stylings and cute little bots from Silent Running, the retro design from Outland, the lived-in blue-collar feel of Alien, the tragic romance of Tarkovsky’s Solaris. Even incidental touches, such as the slightly ominous jump from interior to exterior that recalls The Thing. Rather than become mere sci-fi archive, the film incorporates the influences into its strange temporality. One that seems to flux after Sam suffers an accident on the lunar surface.

While the prologue and video messages Sam receives from his wife suggest a modern, but declining, earth, the lunar base feels fixed in another era altogether. Both regressive and progressive. Technologically advanced, but in sad withdrawal. One exacerbated by the feeling that time has no rules here. Day? Night? It’s satisfyingly unclear.

Jones orchestrates this disorientation from behind once-pure white walls, now sullied by grime. A fragile bubble, mixing classic arcade displays, Chesney Hawkes morning alarms, suspicious support robot Gerty (Kevin Spacey) and the anachronism of a vintage leather armchair. It’s here that Sam grapples with heady themes of identity, alienation and isolation. The audience are clued in gradually, as if part of some intricate celestial mystery. Subtle touches like Sam’s sensitivity to light and unexplained jumps in a video feed illuminating as much as they confound. Even we are forced to question: what are we willing to sacrifice for technological superiority? The answers are never as clear cut or as forthcoming as you might think.

It’s almost a relief to escape into the stark, empty beauty of the lunar surface. But even here our perception and perspective are being skewed. The dream-like hazy flow of images accentuated by the intricate, Meccano/Big Trak influenced model work and Clint Mansell’s brooding, siren’s lament. It’s a fiercely modern and precise score, infused with a dark, wild undercurrent that, as with Jones’ controlled direction, supports the story without overwhelming it.

Rather than go with the showier sci-fi metaphors, Jones’ oppositions are more relatable: the shift from light (the base interior) to dark (space) and the greys in between (the flayed lunar surface). Unlike the guts of the space station in 2001, which housed artificial component memory, beneath the surface of Moon is flesh and blood. The human soul on display and frittered away at the behest of commerce.

However, instead of the sinister super-corporations from Blade Runner or Alien, here the intentions are unclear. Are the backers of the lunar project evil or in service to mankind? Jones almost outdoes classics of the genre with a refusal to dish out simple answers. He respects us far too much for that. He’d rather challenge us. And it is a testament to his skills as a filmmaker that he finds a satisfactory conclusion without negating discussion.

But there’s a long way to go before that and it’s Sam Rockwell who mesmerises every step of the way. He seems to relish the challenge, taking a surface simple one-hander and distilling it to reveal myriad facets of a human personality. It’s a mini-masterpiece performance, running the gamut of emotions from complacency, fatigue and boredom to anger, inquisitiveness, fear until eventually he is little more than a child, quivering and crying out for home.

If the power of Rockwell’s performance resides in the complex, Kevin Spacey’s robot Gerty is pure simplicity. Post-it laden, emoticon winking, and resembling a piece of dental equipment, he streams unsettling cadences to full effect. There’s an obvious HAL influence, but where that AI’s motivations were grimly apparent, Jones toys with us. Right up until the final darkly humorous exchange between Gerty and Sam that manages to both humanise and dehumanise in equal measure. It’s a moment that lingers long after a fuel capsule is jettisoned, blasting off towards earth. Observed by a dying eye, it still speaks of rebirth. And in the streaking wake of its passage a hundred new questions and potentialities are born.

Forcément, comme j’ai plutôt bien accroché à Source Code, j’étais très intéressé par Moon. C’est moins bon que le second film du cinéaste, il faut bien l’avouer, mais il faut aussi reconnaître qu’il sait installer une ambiance et se créer son propre style. Point de vue scénario, et risque de spoilers, je dois avouer rester légèrement sur ma faim, comme une petite déception quelque part. L’oeuvre n’est pas totalement maitrisée et on sent bien trop où le cinéaste veut nous emmener. Au final, ça crée énormément de longueurs pour un film d’1h30 alors que le thème du clonage est exploitée de manière intéressante, loin des clichés du genre. De plus, Jones se permet des références importantes comme à Blade Runner (pour l’implantation de la mémoire) ou à 2001: l’odyssée de l’espace. Hormis ces longueurs qui pour moi reflètent nettement plus un manque de maturité, il y a donc du positif. Sam Rockwell est très intéressant dans son rôle. La trame reste effectivement assez classique en dépit d’une volonté de se démarquer. La musique de Clint Mansell est un rien répétitive par contre.

It’s a good movie with a lot of interesting ideas, it just didn’t follow through. There is way too much time spent on effects shots, which honestly aren’t anything to brag about. The other issue I had was the fact that it borrowed a little too much from 2001. However, it does have a good performance from Sam Rockwell that’s worth watching. It seemed way too obvious to me what was going on the entire time and Duncan Jones still needs to figure out a style that works for him, rather that flip flopping.

Moon isn’t a complicated film; not really. People will tell you it is, but it isn’t. It’s not existential. It’s not ponderous. It is really very simple.
Watch Sam Rockwell.
That’s it.
Nothing more required.
Sam Rockwell delivers the greatest performance of 2009, as well as in his varied and eclectic career. He plays a work-man supervising the mining of precious energy producing resources on the surface of our moon. To say any more than that would be to the direct detriment to the story. The simple fact is that the devastating journey Rockwell’s discovers take him on reveal a flawed, matured and deeply sympathetic individual who takes his place amongst the most realistic characters ever drawn, despite his deeply science fiction confines.
Now as much as I maintain this is Rockwell’s picture, I cannot deny that it was written and directed with the utmost of skill. The subtle cues, the misdirection, the tragedy, all of it handled as presicely as possible.
In short, this is a devastating little film with sincerity and wit in spades, and it is without doubt in my mind the best film to be produced in 2009.

To be brief this is the best science fiction film I have seen that has been made in the last ten years. This film is comparable to 2001 in many aspects, but the story is paced much better and the story is easier to follow. The movie is a very accessible science fiction film, but fans of the genre will still be able to appreciate the intellectual aspect of the film, as it is in no way dumbed down to please general movie goers. The plot is incredibly suspenseful and the story is more intelligent than any other recent science fiction films; it does not contain any action like the new Star Trek, and I greatly enjoyed that its a thinking man’s movie. This movie is very under appreciated and I believed that the lead (and only) actor in the film, Sam Rockwell, greatly deserved an Oscar nomination for the film. The movie also looks incredible with most of the special effects being a combination of models and miniatures, which is a style that we don’t see too often anymore because of the ease of computer graphics. I highly recommend seeing this film because it is the perfect science fiction experience, being relevant, intellectual, and using captivating special effects and a superb story.

Rating: 10/10

I finally rented Moon tonight, and it was well worth it. Duncan Jones knows his science, and has a serious case of hero worship for Sam Rockwell, as he freely admits writing this entire story specifically for him. Sam Rockwell is convincing, and does a fair job; but I wasn’t blown away by the performance. The premise of the movie is very intriguing, and I enjoyed exploring the idea along with the main character(s). It was also VERY awesome to see a film use mostly model miniatures as opposed to going 100% CG like most Sci-fi franchises have nowadays. There’s just something about model work that makes me nostalgia, hard. The cinematography seems so much more real to me. I loved all of the lunar landscapes and scenes, effects-wise the movie was an A+; I adored it. The acting could have used a coat of polish or two, but any actor would be hard-pressed to give an Oscar performance alone on the screen, and playing off of himself for almost 2 hours. All-in-all, I definitely recommend it. Watch & discuss.

Just as Arthur C. Clarke’s prophetic decade of discovery came to a close, a film came along to conjure up comparisons with 2001: A Space Odyssey and revive interest in the great British science-fiction film. Sam Rockell gives a tremendous virtually solo performance as Sam Bell, stationed alone for three years at a lunar industrial base, with only the HAL-like robotic servant GERT (the sedate tones of Kevin Spacey) for company. But after a concussive accident in a lunar rover, Sam wakes in the infirmary to discover that he might not be quite as alone as he’d thought. Duncan Jones’ first feature makes excellent use of it’s relatively low budget, with superb sterile sets and impressive split-camera effects. Also of note is the excellent model work – a refreshingly tangible quality in an age of predominant CGI. But all this would mean very little if it weren’t for the film’s thoughtful and engrossing narrative. A brilliantly sustained claustrophobic puzzle of lost identity, Moon is no mere space oddity. (sorry!)

Very much a back to basics lo-fi sci-fi (defiantly low-budget, low-key and teeny-weeny cast) and also it really does feel like an extended episode of The Twilight Zone. But I do mean this in the nicest possible way – the best episodes of the classic series knocks spots off most of what passes for sci-fi nowadays (Lucas/Bay/Emmerich can go suck a fuck as far as I’m concerned). A straight forward story with a simple premise is undercut with all the big themes of the best kind of sci-fi story – loneliness, identity, empathy, life & death and our own sense of mortality – what it means to be human of course. And Sam Rockwell does it all on his own, bless him – well with a bit of prompting from a ‘post-it note’-faced computer that, despite feeling like as much fun as a mobile micro-wave oven, still manages to illicit a fair amount of the films humour (although voiced dead-pan by Kevin Spacey, you still here the smirk in his dulcet delivery). Rockwell has to carry the film of course but he does so with a performance invested with real warmth and vulnerability that is very involving and extremely moving.

[I originally wrote this on www.binkythedoormat.com on 23 July]

At last I have seen Moon. Ever since seeing John Calvert’s excellent poster concept at All City months and months ago, the weight of expectation I’ve put on this film has been immense. It reached a point where I knew it could only disappoint.

Somehow though, it didn’t. In fact, it was so good that as soon as the end credits started rolling, Dr B suggested we dash out and immediately queue up for the next screening. I’ve watched films multiple times before, but not in one evening. The City Screen staff stared at us in what I assumed was awe, but on reflection was probably pity.

So, some thoughts:

— The design of the sets and vehicles brought to mind the LEGO Space sets of the eighties: lots of clunky shapes and 45º angles. I don’t know if this was deliberate, but it added a new depth to the future-nostalgic look of the film.

— It was bugging me, but I’ve since discovered that the display text used throughout is Eurostile Black Extended.

— Sam Rockwell is great, and should be cast as Bilbo Baggins as soon as possible.

— This film was made for £2.5 million. Amazing.

— Do you know what HAL was missing? Somewhere to put down your coffee mug. Genius.

— I need to buy me a walk-in sleeping bag, yellow.

— Duncan Jones seems like a really nice – and quite frankly geeksome – bloke. He seems like someone I’d gladly sit down and play Twisted Metal World Tour with. Plus he’s responded to some of my tweets, which is almost definitely the second most exciting twitter-related celebrity thing that’s happened to me this year.

— I can’t be sure, but I think I saw a certain Muji clipboard in the film, which just makes me want it more.

— It should win lots of Oscars, but will probably lose out to a film about Meryl Streep looking after a gay puppy with tourettes. Or something.

What begins as a clever mash-up of Tarkovsky’s Solaris and Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey turns into a uncomfortably claustrophobic tale laced with dread and doubt, a film that skillfully turns the conventions of the films it references on their heads and comes up with something entirely new.

Moon premiered at Sundance in January of this year and is directed by a newcomer named Duncan Jones—who happens to be the son of one David Bowie. His film was made on a smallish budget of $5 million dollars, but it doesn’t show. Moon is slick and well directed, with special effects that pay homage to the handcrafted brilliance of Stanley Kubrick rather than the money-soaked wet dreams of Michael Bay. It also happens to be the best science-fiction film of this century so far.

“Hallucinations and “is this real or in my head?!?” dilemmas are sci-fi cliches. Stupid main characters who can’t figure out a real-world solution before the audience does… that’s a bad movie cliche in general. Films about the troubling and traumatizing effects of isolation, and about possible ongoing solutions to the truly exorbitant costs of space travel (yes, I think cloning would probably ultimately be cheaper than spacecraft, fuel, and maintenance)… a sad rarity. Moon wasn’t acclaimed because it was a “throwback”… it was acclaimed because it was a thoughtful, well-developed speculative treatment of some classic science fiction themes.”

What would you do if you met yourself?

That is the question. It’s certainly a good one, worthy of some thought. I, for one, have no idea how I would react to this situation, but feel as though Moon really touches on what it might be like to be face to face with yourself. Sam Rockwell really knocks you out with his gripping portrayal of Sam Bell. To say more might ruin plot points, but Bell’s journey of self-discovery is a unique and entertaining one, to say the least. While the film brings up questions of morality and humanity, it also deals with, in a much more important sense, how we perceive each other. If something shows the traits of a human, is it in fact human? The character Gerty exemplifies this, specifically with his last exchange with Sam, and to me really drives home the point of the entire story. If I were to describe this film to someone, I would compare it to Solaris thematically, since both deal with finding the soul of things that we as a society would assume have none. All that aside, though, I honestly have to say that I expected more plotwise. Since 2001, I haven’t found a Sci-Fi film that has truly stimulated my mind, and I thought this would do it. While being a very strong entry in the genre, I felt as though the end fell into too many cliches that have already been touched upon in the genre (Alien specifically). Also, I felt that while on a psychological level many pertinent questions arose, there was never a grander point to what was happening after the mindfuck thrown into the middle of the film. At a certain point, you are told exactly what is happening in the film, and to me good sci-fi (excluding Star Wars and Star Trek) never lets you get comfortable. Up until the last frame, films like 2001 and Blade Runner do an exemplary job of going where you don’t expect them to. With Moon, if you’re a fan of the genre, you know exactly what will happen and will agonize for more when it’s over. I strongly recommend this film to fans of the genre as well as casual moviegoers, if they’re looking for something with a little more brains.

Thanks to Duncan Jones’ fine acting, what could have been a rather dull film became a fascinating character study. Seeing as his performance is really what drives the film, it’s a testament to him that Moon never looses energy.
Moon has a wonderful atmosphere and tone. It really captures the feelings of isolation and loneliness that the main character is no doubt experiencing.
All in all, this is the best sci-fi to come around in a long time.

I loved this movie for what it wasn’t: no phony CGI, no pew-pew lasers, nothing splattery, not a rushed pace &c &c.

The things that most impressed me were what the director & company managed to avoid doing.

So. In a very honest and unfortunately a brutal way, I didn’t love this movie at all. And I didn’t: the cushioned-experience of sitting in the theatre and taking in each frame held no pleasure or (apart from “hmm, I wonder what’ll happen now — these plot twists sure are getting screwy!”) interest.

Of course Rockwell gave a good show of it: the part is a tricky one to play and he managed real well. Of course it had original licks in it: Hal-meets-guy-smiley Kevin Spacey, the midpoint mindfuck, the spareness of the actors versus its scope (not compleeeetely but youknow) &c &c. But none of these elements added up to me finding Awe or Love in it, things I selfishly demand from a movie.

I think one reason why the reviews have been positive is that it’s a fresh breath from both the indie world (which normally eschews Hollywood-genre films) and Hollywood itself (which normally relies on Michael Bay to solve problems …). It referenced older more classic movies and was smart.

Smart, but not wise. Which is why I didn’t fall in love with it. There were a couple moments where I thought “that …. would never happen” and “but what about another great human invention?: logic …” which is 1. snarky but also 2. the way I felt. Kind of like the script was going through the motions of savvy space thriller with Earth-bound romance attached, but never really dug in.

An example: GERTY both evading questions and showing willingness to help? why was the apparition-girl sort of just tossed aside? didn’t any one of the Sams realize they would die after 3 years? all the signs were there … won’t there be a record of the shuttle’s leaving making it easy for Lunar Industries to track him down? Will the communication blockers’ collapse somehow prevent that from happening? if the tower only recently failed, how come Sam hasn’t talked to his family …. ever? shouldn’t the clones be more concerned with their being clones rather than bringing down a company – ie. do they have rights or a lifespan (see above) or real & valid emotions?

Obviously that’s several not an example. And I may have missed things making these questions themselves illogical. My point: the movie skipped over things that I think a smart, yes, wiser, film, would have avoided or surpassed somehow.

HOWEVER. Wouldn’t it be nice if this were the absolute lowest kind of movie that Hollywood would send out to cinemas? Instead of being among the better out there. Just imagine how amazing going to the movies could be if THIS would be the most extreme example of a ‘bad’ or ‘unhappy’ film. Man.

In sum: I admire what it tries to do, what it avoided, and some factoids about it, but it never really struck me where the heart is. Or the brain, sadly.

Moon (Duncan Jones, 2009)
Set in a futuristic mining facility on the moon. Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) works for the LUNAR company, who produces a new clean from of energy that is able to support 70% of the Earth’s population, ending most problems that we have today. Nearing the end of his three year contract Sam starts to realize that the company has no plans for him to return home.
Rockwell does a great job in a challenging role of not only working in a mostly one man cast, but also playing two different versions of himself. The first Sam Bell is a “who gives a damn” kind of guy, where the second Sam Bell has more of a temper problem. Rockwell’s performance as both characters shows is talent for deep character development, specially nearer to the end of the film were the first Bell becomes pretty much a walking zombie.
Overall the film is a very good example of a character driven storyline of one man’s personal odyssey to find himself, but the main themes have already been explored in earlier sci-fi films. Although the film does bring up modern issues of global warming and the ethics of human cloning but going back and looking at the sci-fi films of the 1960s and 1970s one will also see many issues of the day addressed .
The films has the same feel has Tarkovsky’s Solaris (1972), in fact so much so that it seems like Jones did not so much as pay homage to this early film, but still most of its plot. For fans of films like Solaris Moon would be a good viewing, as it is pretty much the same film, just updated to deal with modern issues. Jones does a great job working with the slow paced nature needed to make the film work and also contrasting the emptiness of space with the claustrophobic nature of being alone in a space station.

Overall I thought this was really well done. The stylistic nods to 2001 are well-done and, indeed, even deftly handled. The story was not as predictable as I would have thought, and overall the acting was great. It may not have been a ‘perfect’ film and owed much to classics if you knew them well, but left me very satisfied and the sense that I hadn’t wasted my time or money. A nice surprise these days – especially so in the genre of sci-fi!

This has the makings of a ‘mini-classic’ homage film that stands well on it’s own. Highly recommended, and interesting idea(s).

My God what a pleasant surprise this film is given the summer of disappointments. Duncan’s film is intelligent, well crafted and indeed restrained.

The production values and design by Tony Noble are excellent and Sam Rockwell’s performance deserves a second take by everyone already bemused by this brilliant actor.

I don’t want to give away any plot details, this jewel deserves to be watched without any pre-conceived notions.

I cannot wait to see what Duncan Jones tackles on next.

“Wait, what movie did you see,” my wife asked me. “Moon,” I answered. “Oh right. That looked like the bastard child of Solaris and 2001,” she replied. If that had been the case, I might have enjoyed myself. A metaphysical love story sprinkled with cognitive dissonance could have been fairly interesting, if derivative. Unfortunately, in a conscious attempt to avoid any direct comparisons with either of those masterpieces, Moon falls flat. Like a magician who shows us the card up his sleeve, writer/director Duncan Jones reveals Moon’s twist early in the second act, trading mystery and suspense for relatively prosaic illumination and little narrative development.

It’s the near future, and Sam Rockwell plays Sam Bell, the sole astronaut manning a helium-3 mining station on the far side of the moon. Lunar Industries Inc. is the only provider of helium-3, and a commercial by the company at the beginning of the film informs us that the non-radioactive element has saved the Earth from its energy crisis, providing clean energy to people all over the world. Sam is nearing the end of a three year contract, and his time alone there has visibly taken its toll on his mental and physical well being. A malfunctioning com-sat has kept him from having real-time communications with his wife and child for his entire duration, forcing them to send taped messages back and forth to each other. His only companion has been GERTY, the station’s artificially intelligent computer (voiced by Kevin Spacey), manifested not as an omnipresent red eye, but as a series of emoticons, recognizable by anyone who has ever instant messaged. Gee, I wonder why Sam is going a little crazy?

At this point the film is still promising. You’ll be asking yourself several questions, like why the company would place one single human in charge of a mining station providing the Earth’s sole energy resource, or why the company couldn’t repair a single com-sat in the entire three years of Sam’s contract. Unfortunately, Sam soon discovers that he’s not alone, and it’s not long before the helpful computer tells him the truth about the station. Which will leave you about an hour and half to wonder exactly what else this movie has to offer.

In a film with essentially only one actor, it’s no surprise that the success of the film depends largely on that actor’s performance. And although Sam Rockwell is perfectly up to the task of playing a crazed but likable astronaut, Moon also calls on him to portray an intensity and animosity that he just isn’t capable of. Though even had he been able to pull off that bipolar emotionality, I’m not convinced that it would have saved the film from its serious narrative failings.

Final Thought: A good magician never reveals his secrets, but a good film knows when to trade the mystery for forward development. Moon is in desperate need of some magic.

After an early career playing “thugs,” (see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Basquiat), Sam Rockwell began performing in supporting roles for many high profile indies in the early 2000s. It wasn’t until George Clooney, of all people, decided to step behind the camera for Confessions of a Dangerous Mind that he got his first real lead role, and did he ever take advantage. Well, he did as far as acting goes, maybe not job-wise because, besides a second lead in Ridley Scott’s Matchstick Men, it was mostly indie-fare again. Only this time Rockwell was a focal point, allowed to stretch his legs and add something to each film. No work solidifies the fact that he will be in the pictures for many years to come then the new Moon, another debut from an unlikely source. This one is not an actor turned director, however, but instead music legend David Bowie’s son Duncan Jones. I think it is safe to say that this newcomer has quite the career ahead of him too.

Moon is ostensibly a one-man show featuring Rockwell as an astronaut sent to the moon on a three-year contract to maintain a mining station that harvests the sun’s fusion energy from moonrocks. We are thrown into the mix with only two weeks left in his tenure, the desire to return to his wife and daughter, whom he has never seen in real life yet, strong and his psyche all but ready to break from the lack of human interaction. Sam Bell has been keeping busy by utilizing a treadmill, watching old Nick at Nite type sitcoms, whittling away at a wooden model of his hometown with an X-acto knife, and conversing with the station’s artificial intelligence GERTY. The live feed to Earth has been disengaged for a while now, leaving this monotonous voice and bright yellow smiley face—complete with changing expressions—of Kevin Spacey his only friend. Sure he gets to record video packages for his wife and bosses at Lunar Industries, and they reply back to him, but the distance needed to travel is great and the time between too long.

Cabin fever has definitely set in as Sam begins to zone out and manifest a woman, first sitting down in his chair and then out on the moon’s surface while he is out for a routine check. Both instances cause him to forget what he was doing, causing great personal harm and injury. When the real trouble occurs, however, is the moment—as seen in the trailer—he brings back a body from the surface that appears, for all intents and purposes, to be him. This is the point where talking about Moon gets a little difficult so as to not ruin the mystery that should be unsolved when you sit down to watch the film. The trailer portrays a story that seems to beg the question of whether the second Sam is truly there or only in his imagination as he slowly goes insane. I won’t divulge the answer, but instead say that it gets solved fairly quickly. So, instead of the film becoming a psychological thriller with a big reveal at its conclusion, Duncan Jones’ story becomes complete science fiction, bringing in moral questions about technological advances we in 2009 are just beginning to wrestle with.

This aspect, while at first threatening to ruin my experience as I entered thinking the question of whether Sam number two was real or not would be the backbone to the tale, became so important to my enjoyment. Rather than a look inside the psyche of this man, isolated for so long, we are given a tense race against time as Sam must discover what is happening and think of a way to get out from under it all before the ELIZA rescue team arrives from Earth, an event that could have very dire consequences. I don’t want to ruin too much, but let me just say that the clock is counting down to his death, an ending that could be caused by many different factors, (failing health, execution by those coming, etc.), that also begs the question of whether he is in fact alive in the first place. I have to say that Jones and screenwriter Nathan Parker put together a taut thrill ride that will keep you on the edge of your seat. The pacing is deliberate and rapid all at the same time, the art direction pristine, and the camera tricks very impressive.

Sam Rockwell is a major part of this as it is definitely the best work of his career. Not only is he onscreen for the entire run time, about 80% of it is playing opposite a computer or himself. The pressures being put upon his shoulders, the fear of what may be happening, about his very own existence, weigh down his emotional strength and it shows. The outbursts, the sarcasm, the joking around to anger his doppelganger, and the heartbreaking realization of what is going on show through with perfection. This is his shining moment, proving his craft and ability to act above and beyond the “funny guy” he is often relegated to play. Especially when pitted against such a stark background of clinical white futuristic rooms or the vacuum of space, the angst, joy, disbelief, and fortitude of his humanity are all that we are able to see, his performance is paramount to the film’s success.

I know that, as far as storyline goes, this review remains somewhat vague besides expressing the visceral tension and underlying mystery waiting to be solved, but I believe that is for your own viewing pleasure. While the trailer is not necessarily misleading, it posits a question that is answered early on as being the main crux of the entire film. That possibility of more than one Sam Bell or of a man who’s hold of reality has been broken may be what you went into the film expecting to see. Well you will just see it sooner than expected and as a lead into the real story of survival, identity, and the idea of home. In that respect, having the trailer’s mystery solved only means more time for unexpected storylines; it may have gotten you into the seats, but it is only the beginning of what this science fiction classic-in-waiting has to offer.

Good Sci-Fi has always been about big ideas coupled with decent dramatic material. Since Science Fiction is over 50 years old now, new big ideas are few and far between. Although Moon’s “big idea” likely has been seen before, I’d be surprised if it’s been coupled with the dramatic themes that animate this film. It’s this novelty that gives this film its punch. There’s a point beyond which the film only subtly rises (if that), and perhaps Mr. Jones feared foundering in an attempt to ramp this movie up, something which only a director and/or writer with mad skills or confidence could even attempt. Although in the end I found Moon to be a little disappointing, it’s not because it’s a bad film (it’s not), but because it leaves so much fertile territory only barely explored.

Moon is an incredibly accomplished debut feature from director Duncan Jones, who, along with his star, are better than the film itself. While Moon is an intriguing and entertaining film, the story it’s telling is not really enough to sustain its running time.

Having said that, Sam Rockwell is his customary excellent self, creating two performances that might be the same man, but are certainly different characters. It’s affecting and engrossing to watch. Jones also directs the film with real skill, making effective choices that ratchet up the tension, even when there’s really not much to the story.

Although its lack of incident is a flaw, who really cares when a film is as masterfully made, beautiful to look at and as well-acted as this?

I just saw the film, which is usually too early for me to offer a thoughtful, somewhat objective review. This film certainly invites further rumination. But at this moment, when I am still feeling the exhilaration of having been lost and enveloped by a film, my first thought is that I saw nothing wrong or flawed about it. Sam Rockwell’s performance was nuanced and subtle, despite the complexities of the plot that are thrust upon him as a performer. That he can hold your attention and interest for the entire duration of the film is truly a gift. And I don’t care who Duncan Jones’ Dad is. This is a wonderful feature debut. I’m excited for whatever he may create next.