CineVegas Review: ‘Moon’

In an age when science-fiction films tend to be more big-budget special effects driven action/horror movies than actual science fiction, ‘Moon’ delivers an outstanding rare slice of what makes true science-fiction great. Duncan Jones makes a phenomenal debut with his first feature directorial outing. ‘Moon’ is an indie film with a relatively modest budget of $5 million, but the result is a priceless cinematic experience that leads us through a more psychological realm of the genre.

‘Moon’ stars Sam Rockwell as Sam Bell, an astronaut working for Lunar Enterprises in the near-future after energy on Earth has become a rare commodity. Sam is stationed alone on the Moon at the company’s HE3 mining operation. HE3 is a clean-burning fuel for producing fusion energy that is abundant in the rocks on the dark side of the Moon, but rare and expensive to process on Earth. Sam’s contract states that he serve three years on the Moon station and in exchange, he would receive a handsome payout upon returning home to his wife and daughter. Sam’s family is the one thing keeping him focused and positive about this long and grueling experience as the film picks up two weeks away from the end of his contractual obligation.

Sam’s only companion during his three-year stint running the mining station is an AI robot named GERTY, featuring the smooth and morally ambiguous voice of Kevin Spacey. GERTY serves as both a light comic relief and as a dramatic catalyst for many of Sam Rockwell’s engaging moments. GERTY’s artificial emotions are inferred by a digital display of the pop culture yellow smiley face, but the face takes on an array of emoticon-like representations depending on how GERTY reacts to Sam’s various inquiries. Directly influenced by HALL from ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, Jones created GERTY as both an homage and as an updated, somewhat more complex computer character. It’s difficult to read GERTY at first, as the story develops and it’s true motivations and alliances are revealed.

‘Moon’ is as much a mystery as it is science-fiction, as Sam is abruptly thrown a curve ball at the end of his term, leading him on an existential discovery of his true identity and the secrets that have been withheld from him about his situation. Sam finds both past and future, as well as his mind, crumbling before him as he struggles to cope with the truth of his own place in the world. Rockwell is absolutely brilliant in ‘Moon’ and delivers a performance worthy of Academy recognition. The emotions, the terror an the pain that Bell experiences are painted so vividly by Rockwell that the fact that the movie essentially is a one man show is completely lost in the fray, overshadowed by the intensity of the performance.

Duncan Jones has managed to prove that great storytelling in the science-fiction genre is not a dying art and can be accomplished without a massive budget and loads of special effects. While ‘Moon’ has a relatively minimal use of CGI, primarily found used to touch up, hide and fill in, Jones actually relied on the old school technology of set design and model miniatures a la ‘Star Wars’ with great success. Jones managed to reconstruct the exteriors of the Moon with a haunting realism that nearly becomes its own character.

In the end, ‘Moon’ proves to be one of the most intelligent and emotionally powerful films of the year and even longer within the science-fiction genre. ‘Moon’ places Duncan Jones within the pantheon of talented young directors that are bound to continue amazing audiences with their smart and original films for years to come. ‘Moon’ has been picked up by Sony Pictures Classics for distribution and opens today in New York and Los Angeles. If you’re looking for something different, something smart and something worth your $10, then you should be in line to see ‘Moon’ and then telling everyone you meet about how you just had your mind blown by one of the coolest sci-fi films in years.