Short Take: Moon (views)
Director Duncan Jones makes a solid directorial debut with the sci-fi thriller Moon, starring Sam Rockwell as Sam Bell, the sole crew member of a helium harvesting station on the moon. Sam's nearing the end of a three-year contract in which he's passed his solitary time interacting with the base's robot helper, Gerty (Kevin Spacey), building a model town started by his predecessor, and talking to his plants. Two weeks before the end of his contract, Sam's starting to unravel; he has a hallucination that causes him to crash his moon rover and wakes up in the infirmary uncertain how he got there. Soon, he learns that his three years on the moon base have not been what he thought they were ...
Jones has made a remarkably well-directed first feature; the script, written by newcomer scribe Nathan Parker off a story idea by Jones, has some minor issues, but certainly nothing insurmountable. The film's conceit is intriguing, delving into what makes us who we are. Is it the face we see in the mirror? The DNA that makes us? The memories we carry? The direction is taut, keeping the dramatic tension flowing -- impressive, considering that it's about a solitary guy on a moonbase.
Rockwell's performance is great as well. He evokes believably the emotional seesaw of Sam's terror as he questions who he is and if he's falling apart mentally, or his life really isn't what he thought it was. Well-done, intelligent sci-fi that could have decent mainstream appeal, and it's one of the better-buzzed films of the fest among press who have seen it thus far; a press screening was added this morning, booting out the scheduled screening of Shrink, which has now been moved to next Tuesday at 11PM, the night before the film's first public screening.
Today's added screening of Moon was the second screening it's had for press in three days; it previously screened on Friday to mostly good response, and today's screening was pretty packed, even given that a lot of folks hadn't gotten the memo about the schedule change.