Moon (Duncan Jones, 2009)

Directed By: Duncan Jones
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey

What It's All About:

Sam Bell is an employee of Lunar Industries who has been contracted to extract Helium-3 from the lunar soil for much-needed clean energy on Earth. He leaves behind his pregnant wife Tess, and due to a chronic communications failure he is limited to occasional recorded transmissions to and from Earth. He is stationed on a largely automated lunar base "Serang" for his three year contract, with only a robotic assistant named GERTY to keep him company. Two weeks before his contract is over and he is set to return to Earth, Sam begins to suffer hallucinations. He sees a teenage girl aboard the station, and while on a routine Helium-3 extraction he is distracted by a figure standing on the lunar service. He crashes his lunar rover and loses consciousness. When he awakes his whole world is turned upside down.

The Final Verdict:

Sam Rockwell dials in a near perfect performance is this sparse yet gripping release from Duncan Jones. Borrowing from classic 60's and 70's Science Fiction, Moon creates an amazing experience that is eerie, beautiful, captivating and most of all human. Intelligent, compelling and better than any blockbuster released in 2009, Moon just goes to show that a small cast and an idea can truly create magic. 

4.5/5

Last updated: 2010-07-07 00:25:01 by hellerphant

On the surface Moon looks about as exciting as the lunar crust itself. Featuring a single actor for much of its 97-minute running time, very little action, and even less dialogue, it doesn't sound as if it should set the movie world alight. Those pictures from the Mars probe sound more exciting.

In reality, however, Moon is a smart and fascinating film that harks back to the good old days of 60s and 70s sci-fi, and it delivers more intellectual thrills than an entire summer of Hollywood blockbusters. It's funny, stimulating, packed with plot twists - and, most importantly, it'll leave you wanting more.

It may not have the dazzling effects and non-stop action of Avatar, or even Star Trek, but there's a good chance that it'll stay with you longer than either.

That's not to say that it's without its problems. At times the pacing it slightly wrong (a one-actor movie is incredibly hard to pull off for the entire duration), and the ending isn't quite as shocking or surprising as it'd like to be. In fact, if you've been paying attention you'll have seen it coming at least thirty minutes in advance, so it's hardly a surprise at all.

These turn out to only be minor quibbles, though, in a movie that challenges Hollywood's action-heavy interpretation of the sci-fi genre (blame George Lucas for that), and comes up smiling at the end. This is a film that wouldn't have looked out of place with Charlton Heston in the lead - and that's meant as a compliment.

Sam Rockwell plays Sam Bell, the laconic employee of Lunar Industries, a company devoted to extracting helium-3 from the moon's atmosphere in order to produce a clean, efficient fuel back on Earth. Sam is contracted to work a three-year solo shift, at the end of which he'll return to Earth to be with his loved ones.

Or so he thinks.

Sam's worldview is spun into orbit, however, when he has an accident on the moon's surface and crashes his vehicle. He wakes in the lunar station's infirmary, being treated by the station's artifical intelligence, GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey). When he disobeys GERTY and strays back onto the moon's surface, he makes a disturbing discovery: his lunar rover is still out there, wrecked, and inside it is the barely-conscious body of none other than Sam himself.

Anyone with even a cursory knowledge of sci-fi will immediately work out what this means, but Moon does enough with its premise to keep it feeling fresh and exciting for the film's duration. Rockwell is nicely cast as the downtrodden Lunar Industries employee, exuding the perfect blend of anger and existential angst from start to finish.

As for that plot... well, we can't discuss too much here without giving Moon's game away, but suffice it to say that it'll keep you guessing. You'll probably guess right, but at least you'll be engaging the old grey matter.

It's also worth noting that Moon's director, Duncan Jones, is better known as David Bowie's son Zowie Bowie (you can see why he changed his name). This is one space oddity that his father would be proud of.

4/5

Last updated: 2010-04-11 20:25:40 by user01

Moon is a breath of fresh air into modern Cinema. After trailing through the dross that has plagued our Cinema screens of lately. It clearly takes alot from the old-skool Sci-fi Genre of the likes of 'Silent Running', '2001 Space..' and has a clear Dystopian theme to it. It portrays space and it's great loneliness (Very Ray Bradbury) brilliantly and makes you totally sympathise with Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell). Not too give too much away but Sam Rockwell does enough acting for everyone to over-compensate for the minimal cast(I hope that hasnt given you too much of a clue to do with this movie).Basically I can't recommend this movie enough. Go and see it! By far the best film of the summer!

http://robinollysays.blogspot.com

Sam Rockwell is perhaps one of the most under-appreciated actors working today. Despite excellent turns in The Green Mile and Matchstick Men (just to name a few), Rockwell never received the real notoriety he deserves. Now at age 40, Rockwell may have finally found the role which will grant him A-list status. Moon is the futuristic story of Sam Bell, a man who has been stationed on the moon in order to collect a valuable energy source. With two weeks left on his three year contract, Sam is looking forward to returning home to see his wife and daughter. But just as his trip home looms around the corner, he begins noticing some strange occurences going on around his solitary station. With robot companion GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey), Sam attempts to unravel the mystery behind his mission.

Moon is the debut film for writer/director Duncan Jones, who was formerly famous for being David Bowie's son. Jones' ideas are familiar enough to any science fiction fan. The ideas of solitude and dehumanization are prevalent throughout the film, which seem to be staples of the genre. But Jones handles these tried and true ideas with care, and uses apt direction to bring them to life. His frequent use of wide, expansive shots is key to showing Sam's loneliness. In one particularly powerful scene, Sam drives out to the middle of a wide open range and begins to cry for his home. Jones brilliantly places the camera in a position that shows Sam's vehicle all by itself on the moon's surface, with Earth looming in the background. As a first time writer, Jones also understands that most audiences do not like to be kept in the dark too long about a film's mystery. By revealing the "secret" halfway through the film, we were able to appreciate Moon as a character driven powerhouse.

But the true reason anybody and everybody should see Moon is Sam Rockwell's beautiful performance. As essentially the only actor on screen for what must be 95% of the film, Rockwell is burdened with keeping this movie afloat for the 97 minute runtime. Masterfully, Rockwell tackles this chore with ease, turning this one man show into Academy Award material. Unfortunately, Sony Pictures decided to not send this film out for consideration, a move which has caused much uproar in the film community. There is no doubt that Rockwell would have been nominated for Best Leading Actor, and he maybe could have won,

Just because Sony snubbed this film does not mean you should too. Moon is one of the best science fiction films of the decade, giving new life to old conventions of cinema. This film should be at the top of your movie rental list. My rating: (9/10)

***
A protracted existentialist quandary fluffed up with all the solemnity endemic to stark sci-fi-scapes that only moody white American men are allowed to tread. That said, most of it unfolds on such an intimate scale on such an impressively used low budget, even hitting some poignant notes in the closing stretch – it feels criminal to poke fun at it.

Last updated: 2010-03-12 02:49:20 by user06

Last updated: 2010-03-02 09:13:41 by JoeandChrisO

Sam is a broken Bell, a hollow creation whose harmonics begin to sound the lonely chimes of madness. His only companion is a HAL-like computer named GERTY, a gently reassuring voice amid the echoing corridors of isolation: a machine imbued with empathy and a sublime human concern for Sam but seems idly withdrawn at times, as if some secret microchip lurks under its scared surface, a fatal virus that infests its circuitry.

Director Duncan Jones creates an ethereal atmosphere that mirrors the cold technicality of the Jupiter One while advancing a mystery as strange as the haunting of Solaris. The set designs are reminiscent of the Nostromo and Valley Forge: even Sam Bell (one of them, at least) is an echo of the shaggy Freeman Lowell in the Douglas Trumball classic, nurturing his plants as if they were children. The film is ripe with homage to these serious science fiction dramas but retains a life (or lives) of its own: this is obviously a labor of love for Jones, his desire to break the bondage of the modern day “sci-fi” genre which has devolved into vapid action spectacle.


MOON is a cold introspection into the barren landscape of the human psyche, its malleable content like the soft lunar dust. The narrative seems unfinished like the mind of a newborn, birthed into its brief life. Jones only allows a subjective viewpoint as Sam begins to unwind, his three year contract almost expired, and explicit explanations are visualized but never grounded in solid fact: we could be experiencing the final madness of brain trauma. GERTY seems to be the clue that Sam’s psychosis isn’t fiction but the acceptance of a harsh reality: he is one of many clones who is designed to oversee the factory, his few memories newly implanted with a life expectancy of three years. He must soon confront himself, the most formidable adversary, and the slow realization that they may share the exact DNA still doesn’t make them anything less than distinct individuals. Sam Rockwell’s excellent performance is a one-man tour de force, allowing each character to become slightly different, to grow into a new person. The only distraction is use of sound effects on the Moon’s surface as the machines harvest the Helium-3: it’s a mistake that should not have been overlooked. Finally, Sam is able to make live contact with Earth and learns a terrible truth about his family, and makes a last sacrifice for the stranger who shares his likeness. Final Grade (B+)

All reviews copyright Korova, Ltd. Visit Alex at his Home Theatre Blog, http://korovatheatrepresents.blogspot.com/

Last updated: 2010-02-25 07:39:39 by AlexDelarge

So David Bowie's son has an idea for a movie, and the next thing you know, we've got a movie!

Considering that's the pedigree for the new low-budget sci-fi flick "Moon," it's surprising the movie works as well as it does.

Sam Rockwell plays a technical expert with a three-year contract to work at a mining facility on the Earth's moon. He's a troubleshooter whose job is to keep the mining machines functional. He is completely alone save for GERTY, a computer voiced by Kevin Spacey in a direct homage to "2001"'s calm but ultimately problematic HAL 9000.

We join Sam at the two year and fifty week mark of his tour of duty. He is looking forward to going home and meeting the young family we see only in pre-recorded video messages.

But something goes wrong. On a service call to a twitchy mining machine, Sam crashes his moon rover and injures himself. He wakes up in the infirmary where he is informed by GERTY that he suffered a concussion but will recover.

And then... the twist. Those afraid of having the first plot point spoiled, avert your eyes.

Sam discovers he was not in an accident at all. Another Sam was. An identical clone. It turns out, Sam's employer is cutting costs by using an endless succession of Sam clones. Instead of returning to Earth when their tour is done, the Sam clones are incinerated.

In the course of figuring this out, Sam manages to save his predecessor from the damaged rover, so the movie consists of three characters: two Sams and GERTY.

More investigation follows, but unfortunately the Sams are slower to appreciate the ramifications of their situation than the audience is. We grasp at once that the Sams don't have a family waiting at home for them (only the long-departed original Sam does). We also grasp that the corporation responsible for the clones' existence will not be pleased to learn of their self-awareness, and therefore the approaching "rescue mission" should be avoided at all costs.

The Sams, however, take a long time to come to these conclusions, so the middle act feels much slower than it should. They spend a lot of time grappling with identity issues and being surly with each other, when in fact their full attention should be focused on the current crisis.

Also, the genre dictates the friendly computer turn homicidal at some point, but that never happens. Somewhat inexplicably, GERTY remains helpful to both Sams to the very end. While this is a nice departure from cliche, it also removes most of the jeopardy and therefore much of the dramatic tension from the movie.

In movies there are only two kinds of danger: 1) immediate danger and 2) whatever kind of danger exists at the concession stand, because that's where the audience is going to be spending their time in the absence of immediate danger.

So all movie long we've got the ominous "rescue mission" on the way, but until it arrives there is no real threat to our characters. Hackneyed though it would have been, GERTY should have made some attempt to liquidate at least one of our Sams.

Also, the clones are designed to physically deteriorate and then die near the three-year mark, so one of the Sams is growing increasingly sick and weak. This is a bad mistake dramatically, since it removes the tension of which clone "deserves" to live more than the other. (One of them must remain on the station to fool the arriving rescue mission.) It takes away the possibility of the clones existing at real cross-purposes. A dying man, after all, has few enemies since his stake in the world (and the future) gets less and less by the minute.

In the end, Sick Sam stays behind to die, Healthy Sam (well, for the next three years, anyway) takes the escape pod to Earth, and the diabolical rescue mission shows up too late to do anything about it. It's an anti-climax.

I once read a short story called "Think Like a Dinosaur" with a premise similar to Moon's but with a much sharper situation.

In it, the human operator of an alien teleportation technology (which humanity now depends on) makes a subtle mistake in the teleportation of a human female. The way the process normally works, a copy of the traveller is made and sent across the cosmos. Simultaneously, the original "version" is disintegrated to prevent two copies of the same person existing at one time -- a situation our alien benefactors (the dinosaur-like creatures of the title) deplore.

But this time, the original version of the traveller is not destroyed. She is alive and well and wondering why she hasn't teleported. When the operator realizes what has happened, he knows he must kill the woman at once, lest the aliens revoke the technology because we failed to follow their rules for its use.

Of course, the woman doesn't want to die, and acts accordingly.

This is a difficult situation there is no getting out of, and it makes for good drama. The conflicting lines in "Moon" are much fuzzier. As a consequence the movie fizzles out just when it should be reaching a thunderous crescendo.

Having said all that, it's still fun to watch a moon rover slowly bounce its way across the crater-ridden surface of the Earth's only natural satellite.

SCORE:

How Accomplished: 58/100

How Much I Enjoyed: 71/100

NicholasC

Good sci-fi is about the people who encounter new worlds, psycho robots and sentient computers. Sadly, it’s a rare thing. Most sci-fi is written by (and for) men who wet themselves at the sight of circuit boards; guys for whom human interaction remains curtailed in chat-rooms. While the ideas of science fiction – what it is to be human, what it is to be alien – are fascinating, they’re usually swamped by silly jargon and space battles. Intelligent sci-fi in movies is practically an oxymoron. Even Alien has a finale where the human female must remove her clothes. Thankfully, the new sci-fi movie, Moon, is not about nipples or things that go “beep”.

It’s the story of a man who lives on the Moon. His name is Sam Bell and he works for Lunar Industries. Sam pushes the buttons that tell machines to stop and start mining Helium 3 (a non-radioactive isotope that – Wikipedia informs me – can be used in nuclear fusion). In the near future, Earth needs Helium 3 for energy. Sam is on a three year contract to keep the Helium 3 coming. He is the only inhabitant of the lunar station, aside from a sentient super-computer called GERTY. Sam’s three years are nearly up. Then one day he starts having hallucinations. Is he really alone? Or is three years too long to be anywhere by yourself?

Sam Rockwell looks like someone who stays up a lot. He has an espresso smile, but his eyes look more like three a.m. He’s easily haunted. Built like a rock star (short-ish, springy) he’s in constant motion when on screen. When you watch him, the word “preening” seems less pejorative. You can picture him as the no-good brother of a guy with “the right stuff”, the sort of astronaut who’d sign up for space program as a way to chase girls. He’s Han Solo if you lopped off six inches. In Moon, he’s alone. You see loneliness scrape off his bravado. All his sexual energy has been sapped by the Tupperware world he lives in. Rockwell excels here, showing us an alpha-male in a state of collapse. He keeps dreaming of sex as a way to stop madness hollowing him. With an actor who was less physical, you wouldn’t feel the texture-less horror of losing your grip. For Rockwell, madness isn’t antic; it’s frighteningly still.

People are bound to make 2001 comparisons. But director Duncan Jones doesn’t direct like Stanley Kubrick. 2001 (though it’s a masterpiece) is a masterpiece with a hard drive’s point of view. Like all Kubrick movies, it regards humans with a unique mix of fascination and distain. The classic Kubrick shot (static, precise) is absent from Moon, which owes a lot more to movies like Silent Running or Dark Star than it does to Kubrick. It’s an actor’s showcase rather than a director’s. Jones just wants us to believe in the environment and his star’s performance rather than salivate over a tracking shot. He isn’t above being light-hearted either. Moon’s sentient computer has a smiley face and the same name as Elliot’s sister in E.T.

As the voice of GERTY, Kevin Spacey sounds Kevin Spacey-like. You know the tone: the way a gold card would sound if you bought something cheap. Spacey does “detached and hating you” better than any actor alive. He’s a perfect contrast to Sam Rockwell’s kicky emotionalism. When GERTY and Sam argue, it’s like listening to a man without a necktie argue with a waiter; one has needs and the other sounds like he’s past caring.

Moon works because it avoids sci-fi’s pitfalls. No-one in it acts like someone’s paying them to be bad. There is no blitzkrieg of CGI. Jargon doesn’t clog the script. Where most sci-fi would throw in aliens to keep you interested, Moon trusts its audience. You are asked to think what it would be like to be alone in space; where that would take you. In a bad sci-fi movie, you’d count the seconds during the quiet bit, waiting for the first head to be torn off. But in Moon, the quiet is the threat. When you live in a place that looks cremated – with a dead man’s view of Earth – it’s where you are that’s scary.

Rating: 5/5

The directorial debut from Duncan Jones, starring Sam Rockwell is easily my top film of 2009. This film blew me away, now I expected to really like this film but I didn’t expect it to be this fantastic. So what is it you might ask that is so fantastic about this film that I would name it my top film of 2009? Well folks … everything!

So what is Moon about? Well it is called Moon, so it has something to do with the Moon right? Yes, yes it does. The film takes place on a station on the Moon, Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) has a three year contract stationed there, he is alone. His only company is with a computer known as GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey), as well as receiving messages from Earth. He is isolated, he feels that isolation as he counts down the three weeks left to his three years contract being up and he can go home. Sam gets into an accident, and that is where things start to get strange.

Best you do not know anymore about the plot, so I will leave it at that. I did not know much about the actual plot going in, I only knew what I had seen from the trailer and the spoiler free reviews that I had read. It felt so good to go into this film not knowing what to expect, how things would unfold. It is important to know this is a low budget, indie, sci-fi film that is layered and complex. It wont be a film for everyone, but this really had my name written all over it. I love a good sci-fi film, I love Sam Rockwell and I love to show my support to indie films. Duncan Jones (David Bowie’s son) I’ve heard and seen interviews with him and I have so much respect and admiration for this man. He has even responded to me on Twitter, now that is cool folks! He has come up with such a great story, and the direction in this film certainly does not feel like a debut effort. The talent he shows here, it feels like he is a great veteran. I thought he was nothing short of amazing, and I can’t say enough good things about the work he has done.

On the acting side, this is a one man show with Sam Rockwell. I recently started a new column here on Super Blog called Perfect Casting, Perfect Performance and in a future column this is going to feature on it. I honestly do not think another actor could have done what Sam Rockwell has done with this role. He was the perfect choice for this role, I really believe Sam was meant to play this role. There is nothing short of amazing with what he does, he becomes Sam Bell, and he played all the right notes. (Minor Possible Spoiler Ahead) The scenes where he has to act opposite himself, you would think it was two different people doing the work. I really don’t think I’ve seen that work so well as I have here. (End Spoiler) His interactions with GERTY are just fantastic, and I am not sure how it was shot, whether Spacey was there or a recording was played or someone else did the voice whilst shooting but it works so well. Sam Rockwell is such a talented actor, and it is a shame he isn’t a bigger star. This man really should be in top consideration this awards season, he deserves it more then anyone else.

This film really is one of the most unique experiences I have had for many years (Along with District 9), and in a time where we get remake after remake it is so refreshing to get something so original, so thought provoking and so stunning to look at. Like with District 9, the budget was small but it looked so damn impressive you wouldn’t guess it was low budget. I really wish we would get more films like this, and it is a shame that it gets a limited release, films like this should be seen!

Thank you Duncan Jones and thank you Sam Rockwell!

(Review written December 9th 2009, first posted on SuperMarcey.com)

Last updated: 2010-02-14 20:24:17 by SuperMarcey

do you like sam rockwell? i hope you do. otherwise you’re not going to like what i have to say; moon is not about the moon, it’s about sam rockwell. he’s on the moon, but that’s not important. what’s important is sam rockwell. i like him. and there’s more than one of him, making it even better. it was a little short on scott bakula, however, which is a shame.

you’ll see a lot of critics commenting that this movie is “real” science fiction. i’m not sure what that means. i think it’s something to do with the lack of aliens this movie possesses. what makes one sci-fi movie more real than another? i’ve seen many, and they all existed. in reality. i just watched aliens the other day, it was real. it had aliens. they were mean and attacked a kitty which upset me.

there was some surprise comedy in this movie. yes comedy, you didn’t see that coming. SURPRISE. it was sneaky, and i laughed. aside from that, the movie really went to the core of a few issues about moral rights, future use of genetics and technology, as well as corporate greed. i think the movie’s take on the issues it addressed was quite correct; it portrayed a reality that was uncomfortable, but not so much as to be unbelievable. that’s what i liked about it: the future sucks, and it’s telling you that it’s going to suck. also, there’s nothing you can do about it, about the sucking. on the plus side, the future is filled with sam rockwell.

this movie also had a lot of emotional and human psyche themes, but i’m not going to talk about them.

overall i rate this movie a 6.2/7. the movie loses some points because it became predictable about halfway through, but don’t let that discourage you from seeing it, it’s still well worth it and a great watch. however, it gains extra points because it’s a sci-fi film, and i’m going to say right now: i’m bias. i’ll rate any sci-fi film higher than it may deserve, just because the genre is weak and filled with horror-crosses that don’t deserve to be in the genre. hear that, movie producers? i’ll give you a high rating just for making a sci-fi movie. without horror. now you know how to get my points.

Last updated: 2010-01-09 01:17:49 by user03

Moon marks the feature debut of Duncan Jones, the latest kid on the block with an incredible talent for science-fiction filmmaking. Along with Neill Blomkamp of the acclaimed sci-fi actioner District 9 (2009), Jones is one to look out for in the near future. Just as the late 70s and 80s brought us an era of truly great science-fiction films from influential directors such as Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott, James Cameron, and George Lucas, more than thirty years on it now seems to have turned full circle. Is this the dawn of another sci-fi age?
 
For hard-core fans of the genre, it is easy to guess which film most inspired Jones to create Moon, a brilliant, thought-provoking space drama directed with skill and craft. Yes it is Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). The use of hand-made miniature models set in a backdrop of empty darkness and the occasional blinking stars echoes Kubrick’s pioneering technique. Moreover, the art direction and set design of the interiors of the holding base in space (in this case on the lunar surface) largely resemble what is seen in Kubrick’s film as well as Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979).
 
The comparisons do not stop there. Jones shoots Moon with a deliberate, slow pacing. The camera is often in motion, drawing viewers into the construct of its frame, pulling us into an alternate world where isolation rules. In Moon, most shots center on Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell), the only major human character in the film (the other being GERTY, a HAL-like computer mechanically voiced by Kevin Spacey). Sam works for Lunar Industries which provides energy to 70% of the world’s population through the use of the moon’s resources. He is entering the final weeks of a three-year contract which requires him to man an outpost on the moon alone.
 
Rockwell gives a solid performance that calls for a wide range of feelings. He aces the role and becomes the fulcrum in which the film relies on for emotional balance. Moon’s character study on Sam is generally excellent. Years of isolation can negatively affect our conscience and judgment. In the film, Sam hallucinates and gets himself into trouble. He wakes up to see a clone of himself. Is this real? Is the clone real? Is myself real? Moon explores psychological themes such as the state of being as well as the issue on the use of science and technology (i.e. cloning) for capital gains at the expense of human rights.
 
The introduction of Sam’s clone in the second-quarter drastically changes the trajectory of the narrative; it does complicate things and will confuse the average viewer. The key is to focus and think abstractly. The director does not offer much explanation to why things are happening this or that way, but he does enough to create a climate that facilitates deep thinking. Moon may run less than a hundred minutes, but it packs plenty of concepts and ideas that are free to different interpretations. It is a highly intellectual film of top-notch standard (accompanied by a hypnotic score by Clint Mansell), and in my opinion, deserves to be one of the best pictures of the year.
 
SCORE: 8.5/10
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Lately I've felt like I haven't seen a really good movie in awhile. Looking back at my reviews, I realized that I haven't seen a new movie that I really enjoyed a lot since late September! Thankfully, that good movie itch has finally been scratched by an independent gem now on DVD called "Moon", directed by Duncan Jones and starring Sam Rockwell.

The basic premise is that in the future, we have discovered a plentiful source of energy on the dark side of the moon and keep a single astronaut there in three-year shifts to refine it and send it back to us periodically. Sam Rockwell plays an astronaut who is just two weeks away from the end of his shift, when he starts to notice some strange things happening around him. By the end of the first third of the film, we discover a major revelation that we spend much of the rest of the film trying to understand.

It's unfortunate that I don't feel free to tell you more about the plot of the film, but the unfolding of the story is half of the fun. What I can do is attempt to tell you what kind of film this is. Although it is not an action movie, the threat of death is very present and the story is compelling from beginning to end. This is dramatic, character-driven sci-fi like we've not seen on the big screen for a long time. Sam Bell, the featured character in "Moon" is a very relatable character that pulled me along on his emotional journey through fear, anger and loneliness. When I was finished watching this movie I felt very grateful for my wife.

Some may compare this movie to "2001: A Space Odyssey", but I would have to ask those people when the last time was that they actually watched "2001". Although "Moon" features only one leading actor, it is a far cry from the slow moving and "quiet" feeling of "2001". Duncan Jones has actually clarified that if anything, this movie found inspiration in films that were inspired by 2001(Solaris, Silent Running, Alien), but not by "2001" itself. And if the idea of spending 90 minutes with only one actor on screen sounds stifling in some way, be assured that Sam Rockwell's performance is rich and varied enough to take the place of two or even three different characters.

If the phrase "independent film" sounds like code for "cheap looking", be not afraid. Despite a tiny budget of 5 million dollars, this movie has some incredible special effects that look so real you forget they are effects! I tend to be very critical of CGI and am usually able to pick it out easily. But I was amazed to discover how many elements in this movie were visual effects instead of practical effects. In addition to CGI, some other visual effects (of which I dare not describe the nature) were the very best I've seen of their kind, without exception. So whatever you do, don't avoid this film because you think it will look cheap. It won't dazzle your eyes with multi-colored CGI effects that look like CGI. But it has numerous special effects shots that will look more real than many special effects films with more than ten times the budget of this one.

One downside of the movie was that during the last third, I felt as though I were about 5 minutes ahead of the filmmakers. I didn't have the whole story mapped out, but I could predict things a little faster than I think they intended me to. However, this was not a significant problem for me and some earlier mysteries of the film kept me from settling into my assumptions too much.

Although Duncan Jones has a background of philosophy, it doesn't show much in this movie and he admits himself that it didn't play a significant role. Potential conversation topics after this movie may include the nature of the human soul and what makes us human. Loneliness and the need for human relationships may also be a connected topic. But any deep conversation after this film will likely only happen between people who are itching to wax philosophical.

To sum up, this is a compelling movie with great effects and a wonderfully engaging performance by Sam Rockwell that may not make you ponder, but it will very likely make you feel. You may even, like me, feel more thankful for the relationships you have.

Rated R for language and brief male nudity.


Quality: 9.0/10

Relevance: 6.0/10

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