MOON. Very Rockwellian.

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Moon

The evil corporation Lunar with a strikingly similar logo as the Purina (Nestle) logo in Alien is mining clean-burning helium 3 for Earth's consumption. Kevin Spacey is the voice of the ubiquitous robot GERTY that is the antithesis of HAL 9000 (2001: A Space Odyssey) keeping Sam Bell the contracted astronaut miner(Sam Rockwell) company, and catering to his every need. Sam thinks his 3 year stint is almost up and he is going home to his wife and daughter until a stranger comes to town. The film is in the vein of classic sci-fi, and it is aesthetically stunning at times, sweeping lunar shots accompanied by a wonderfully dramatic score (Clint Mansell).

SXSW's Spotlight Premiere of Moon at the Paramount was a great compliment to the films look and feel. The nostalgic nods of the film where not so much heavy borrowing, but incredibly intelligent and almost subliminal film making. Duncan Jones, the director, was in commercials in the United Kingdom before making this feature. 

The film is an unconventional 'stranger comes to town story' and the way it was executed with the budget they had is commendable in all respects. Rockwell battles Rockwell and as he said, "It was a real challenge ... I beat myself up and then I got my ass kicked." 

The one actor playing two roles has been tackled by Sally Field, Nicholas Cage, and John Lithgow to name a few, and as Rockwell pointed out " ... it was scary it could very easily become a narcissistic experience ... loneliness, the humanity of that was very important to me." Moon captured that in spades without drifting into this love affair with himself type film, or the director having a man-crush on his favorite actor. Jones did state that he " ... wrote the film for Sam."

Moon was not so much a versus film as a how can we work together film, a buddy film in the same tradition as Midnight Cowboy. The makeup is amazing also, and being a horror film fan that is very important, especially when a film is trying to convey two different physical and mental states, and in the case of Moon they had to accomplish this with the same person.

The subtleties and cleverness of Moon will allow this film to transcend the categories critics and fans will try to place it in, and I feel that speaks volumes. 

  
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