This is one of those rare films—Pi and Primer are the only other recent entries that come to mind—that prove
that you can do great, intelligent sci-fi with a tiny little budget.
Moon is a bit more ostentatious than those two movies, and
certainly features more special effects than both of them combined, but
at heart it’s a slow-burning thought piece.
A blue-collar worker named Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) lives alone on an
energy-mining colony on the moon. As he nears the end of his three-year
hitch, he gradually starts to lose his mind. Sam suspects his HAL-like
helper robot Gerty (voiced with delicious apathy by Kevin Spacey) of
colluding with his superiors in some kind of a conspiracy. His wife and
daughter’s infrequent video messages from Earth only serve to frustrate
Sam further. And just as he starts to prickle at his robotic companion,
he encounters, impossibly, another Sam Bell, identical to him in almost
every way, on the station.
It’s in these scenes—Rockwell interacting with
Rockwell—where the movie really finds its power. This is no
Parent Trap; the split-screen effects are stunning, allowing the
actor to get in close with himself and somehow build a palpable
tension. Moon was written for Rockwell, and it is completely his
show: He’s in almost every scene and at times the movie feels so
intimate that it could practically be a theatrical production. Rockwell
does a fine job of staying somewhat likable (never entirely likable, to
his credit), and, most notably, he never overacts. Jones displays
remarkable confidence for a first-time
director; at his SIFF
appearances, he remarked on his desire to make a gritty, realistic
’70s-style sci-fi film like Silent Running, Outland, or
Alien. Moon‘s steady inward gaze, and humble sense of scale,
makes it a worthy heir to those films. 
http://danhowescinephile.blogspot.com/20…
eh, I guessed this whole movie in about the first 5 minutes at SIFF. Timecrimes was better in terms of sci-finess. Or any episode of the Martian Chronicles. Or almost any episodes of the 80s twilight zone. Lame review. Stick to comics.
Uh, is this playing here? I don’t see it anywhere in the listings.
Paul, while I’m looking forward to “Moon” (character studies in hermetic environments are delicious), I can’t get past the flawed “Pi”/”Primer” comparison. Those two films are notable precisely because they performed genre reinventions and made cultural dents on truly next-to-nothing budgets and with almost no involvement from established American film-industry players (none whatsoever in the case of “Primer”) until they had been cut, locked, and shown around.
“Pi” was made for $60,000 and, apart from Clint Mansell, involved no one of prior renown.
“Primer” was made with $7,000 worth of film stock, a bunch of in-kind services from local businesses, help from family, friends, and coworkers, only one person with any acting experience, a crew of five who figured things out as they went.
“Moon” cost $5 million, was made in a full-fledged film studio, by a slew of industry-ensconced professionals, with an equally established actor. Oh, and the director’s dad is David Bowie.
None of which is bad. It’s just not remotely analogous.
At a time when most indie film productions think it’s more important to track down a Hollywood agent and get them to send you Tori Spelling (“Cthulhu”) than it is to make a halfway decent film, it’s nice to remember films that achieved something memorable through shear talent, resourcefulness, and ingenuity.
@3: My fault–I screwed up on the release date. It’s actually opening next Friday, July 3rd.
Yeah those are better stories and better movies and maintain a true air–potentially surpassing it–of DIYness for certain. This is huge movie compared to those, and tiny compared to T4 and transformers. And everything about Cthulhu was pretty heinous. I had to switch from beer to vodka to finish it.
Like I said, Paul should stick to comics as his knowledge of how films get made is severely limited.
sounds kinda sunshine-ish, which I found kubrickesque in the good way. I hope I can catch it… any compares?
Just saw it at Harvard Exit and I was not disappointed. Easily the best hard sci-fi since Sunshine. Sam Rockwell knocked it out of the park in this movie.