How much do you love me? My Moon Review

What a weird review to write. I mean, I don't want to spoil ANYTHING and yet so much of what you just want to talk about in a review like this is totally spoiler heavy. I may revisit this film in a blog down the road and give the review I would if people had seen it. Anyway, enjoy, this is the film I'm recommending to you this week. Go see Moon!

Moon Rocks
But I can't tell you why

Beloved Reader reader, do you trust me? Because if you don’t, this is going to be a tough sell. See, I want you to go see Moon; I’m just not going to be able to tell you why.

Oh, I’m not trying to be difficult, honest; it’s just that director Duncan Jones has made an original, spirited film that reaches into the core of what makes science-fiction a transcendent and inspired genre and has somehow managed to keep the major elements of the plot a virtual secret. Unbelievably, in an age when the third acts of most movies expose their best parts and leave them flapping in the wind in the second minute of the trailer, Jones has hush-hushed his way to something truly extraordinary.

This much I can tell you: The film, which is based on a story by Jones and was turned into a screenplay by Nathan Parker, is set in the near future. An enterprising energy company discovered that they could solve our carbon crisis by harvesting something called helium-3 from a place made famous by a Pink Floyd album title. Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell), an American astronaut, agreed to sit up on the dark side of the moon by his lonesome and make any necessary repairs and adjustments for three years. His only companion is a kind-hearted computer named GERTY (Kevin Spacey), who is like Hal from 2001 on mood stabilizers.

Then, with less than a quarter of the film’s length elapsed, something happens that transforms the film from a solitary thinkpiece to an unnerving exploration of humanity, human progress and morality. For the purposes of fully developing this review, how I would love to tell you what it is, dear Reader reader, but, there ain’t no way I’m takin’ this treat from you.

Jones, who had previously best been known as the product of David Bowie’s procreation, has announced himself as a major force on the playground of sci-fi; he may be the new kid, but he’ll be a bully before it’s all said and done. Without stooping to cliché, Jones and Parker subtly unravel a nuanced and complicated tale that manages to touch on human rights, simultaneously speaking of our capacity for pure love and calculated hatred. Moreover, the film’s effects, which were practical model shots (the kind used in Star Wars before George Lucas married his computer processor), are realistic and understated enough to turn Michael Bay’s head into one of his beloved explosions.

Still, it would have all been for naught if it wasn’t for Rockwell, who once more displays his diverse ability to play extra-skeevy and irresistibly charismatic. As can be inferred from the lack of other actors mentioned above, Rockwell doesn’t just do the heavy lifting, he does all of the lifting. More than up to the challenge, Rockwell oxygenates the uniquely cinematic space experience with the breath of an off-Broadyway one-man show. If Moon finds the audience it deserves, the ubiquitous actor will find himself on a golden short list.

For the film to succeed, sweet Reader reader, it’s going to need people like you to take a leap of faith, ignoring message boards, poo-pooing cavalier reviewers who care not for protecting audiences from spoilers and sticking fingers in ears when discussions crop up. If you can, if you allow yourself to be surprised and permit yourself to be intrigued by the unknown, this little gem of a film will be a sweet surprise. Jones may remain “David Bowie’s son” for now, but a few more of these, and Bowie may find himself called “Duncan Jones’s father.”

Grade - A