"Moon"
(2009, Duncan Jones, UK)
Average Contributor Rating:
Based on two reviews, displayed in descending order.

Quite often, when a film takes liberally from other, greater, films, it ends up looking understandably poorer by comparison. When a film rips off/homages such inalienable classics as Moon does, then one wonders exactly how the film will fare. With a miniscule budget, a popstar's son for director, a lesser-known yet highly-talented actor on-screen 100% of the time, and creativity from here to, well, the moon, the answer is: very well indeed.

Moon follows Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell), a lone worker for Lunar Industries, who is coming to the end of his three-year mission, mining for the earth's sole remaining source of energy, Helium-3. The films opens with a promotional video for the company which serves not only to introduce us to the company for which Sam works, but also introduces us to this highly realistic future. This veers towards science-fact. It is not "hard scifi" with unintelligible, yet grounded-in-reality ideas; no, rather this is a simple extrapolation of realistic ideas to a logical point at which the story becomes interesting.

Sam communicates, and thus stays mildly sane, with a robot called Gerty. Ostensibly part of the ship (Gerty travels through recesses in the hull) it provides a humanistic foil for Sam's loneliness. Gerty (voiced by Kevin Spacey by way of Hal) does have one endearing visual aid, perfect for this 21st century audience: a small screen showing an emoticon smiley face. This provides not only a source of amusement to break the tension, but also serves as a short-hand for Gerty's reactions, and further humanises the robot both to us and to Sam. Due to a communication error, Sam can only contact earth through a series of delayed recordings, further distancing himself from humanity. This is made the more palpable by his stilted conversations with his wife, who has a daughter who, from the videos shown, he can surely never have met.

Of course, things do not continue down the path one might expect. To discuss further details would be to detract from your experience of the film. But, without giving fear of spoilers, the film does come across both as highly reminiscent of other SciFi classics, but simultaneously incredibly original as well. Sam Rockwell puts in a bravura performance as the sole actor we see 'live' (we see others on video links back on earth). The effects are outstanding. There are no grand spaceships, no CGI whizz-bang effects. But the effects are quietly, steadily, absolutely breathtaking. (I assure you, this will make sense once the film is seen.)

That Moon is a British film is all the more reason to celebrate. Long have I bemoaned the relative lack of British genre cinema. We're strong on drama. We're even covered for action, what with Mr Bond and all. But 'lesser' genres have been sorely under-represented. Let's hope this results in a resurgence of high-quality British genre cinema. . TP.

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Do you remember Michael Bay’s The Island? Well if you do, you’ll remember that for a brief period, it looked like Bay had come over all intelligent on us, and was about to make his masterpiece. A thoughtful science-fiction movie with a serious topic (in that case human cloning) that would ensure that actually Michael Bay could go down as a good director. Unfortunately it turned out to be nothing of the sort, a distressing stream of adverts, which depressingly only hinted at the possibilities of the genre, before using it as window dressing for a bunch of bloody explosions in a poor remake of Logan’s Run. Bay followed it up with more supposedly science-fiction fare, with the obnoxious Transformers films, in which the biggest musing is how much a big robot can hit a bigger robot. I bring this up, because Wall-E aside, it’s been awhile since we’ve seen a genuinely thoughtful science-fiction, or arguably a genuine science-fiction. At its best a genre about ideas that disguise themselves as mutterings about the future while telling you more about your present time, it is often the darkest of genres. Finally a brilliant one has just arrived that is everything those films should and could have been.

It’s funny, as many people have noted, that 40 years ago Man landed on the moon, and David Bowie capitalised by launching his pop career with Space Odyssey, ending years of The Laughing Gnome type atrocities and making him a genuine star. 40 years on, and as we celebrate the anniversary of the moon landings, his son Duncan Jones (neé Zowie Bowie) capitalises with one of the best films of the year, a chilling science fiction, set on the moon, and simply called Moon.

It’s been a while since I’ve enjoyed a debut feature as much as Jones’ Moon, and it is an absolute tragedy that it has seen such a small release in the UK. This really is a film that should be seen by everyone.

However, it is a tricky film to review without spoiling too much. Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is a lone astronaut on the dark side of the moon, mining to ensure the Earth can survive unpolluted. The ship naturally calls to mind 2001 (complete with Gerty, a sort of HAL on wheels, voiced to creepy effect by Kevin Spacey, whose job is to keep Sam sane) and Silent Running and a few other of those Science Fiction films, which are true sci-fi films, films about humanity and about the current time.

Sam doesn’t do any actual mining himself. This is sometime in the future, and so he’s just there in case something breaks down. When out exploring one day, not long before he is making his long awaited voyage home, he crashes, and happens upon something chilling, that neither he, nor the audience can quite comprehend, and it becomes a frighteningly brilliant film.

No more about the plot can really be said, but it’s worth pointing to the brilliant central performance from Sam Rockwell. He has to carry a film essentially on his own, and he fully explores the nuances of his loneliness up in space on his own, and his confusion at what eventually comes to pass. Jones’ direction too, while recalling 2001 and Silent Running in particular, establishes its own world quite beautifully, and his cold, tense direction has you thinking all the way through.

It has had a despicably limited release, and while it won’t do massive box office numbers (because of the release) it bloody should do. It’s a real pity that big chains didn’t take a chance on it, because I feel like they are patronising the audience. While they will use the self-serving argument that it won’t have made money at the box office, and thus wasn’t worth the wide release, this is completely illogical. What gives me hope is that the screening I saw it in was packed, and I hope this is the case elsewhere, and that people seek out one of the best films of the year. . RS..