* * * * * (5/5)

MOON

Rating: * * * * *
Director: Duncan Jones
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey (Voice)
Approx. Time: 97 minutes

Duncan Jones first movie is damn impressive. Moon is stylish, imaginative, yet frightening at the same time. The social conflicts involved are brilliant, is it worth keeping a green-clean Earth while secretly running a dirty business that involves inhumane practices? If you asked me, I’d say, “Hell yeah” but in reality there would be giant protests with hippies going against saving the world. That conflict itself is brilliant. Perhaps Jones creativity in direction comes from his father, who happens to be rock legend David Bowie. Moon is an instant science-fiction classic, there are plenty of twists to keep viewers interested, and it plays like a modern day Twilight Zone episode.

Sam (Sam Rockwell) is an astronaut contracted by an energy company, Lunar Industries to live and work on the moon for three years alone. The moon happens to have clean energy extracted from lunar soil, known as helium-3. Sam makes sure things are smooth on the lunar rock, but after all the years he’s been on the moon, he’s become lonely, and he greatly misses his wife and daughter. Sam is eager to get back home on Earth, but an unfortunate accident causes him to discover something shocking.

I’d like to go further into detail, but it would be difficult to keep writing about the plot without giving away spoilers.

Sam Rockwell deserved Oscar attention for Best Actor along with Jones for Best Director. I honestly believe Moon deserved a nod for Best Picture too (How the fuck did The Blind Side get a nod?).

Kevin Spacey does the voice of GERTY a socializing artificial intelligence that accompanies Sam on the moon. It takes a while to figure out if GERTY is an antagonist or protagonist since it reminded me so much of HAL from 2001: Space Odyssey.

I’d like to give props to Clint Mansell for the music, it reminded me of Trent Reznors work for Nine Inch Nails ‘The Fragile’. It was eerie, yet had emotion to it that made the movie feel very much alive. Lastly the timing of the movie was perfect; I expected this to be a two hour movie, but the editing was smooth, and the movie as a whole felt perfect.

After watching Moon, there are questions unanswered, but Jones does this with class since the more I think about it, these questions aren’t that important at all. It can stem off to so many different things for those who observed the tiniest details in Moon. Hopefully Jones will answer some of the questions I’ve brewed in my head with the follow up Mute. Do yourself a favor and watch Moon. Your mind will be in for a treat!