Moon (2009)

A Welcomed Addition To The Sci-fi Genre

- In the future, Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is close to the end of his 3-year contract on the Moon. In charge of a lunar mining base, Sam is the sole human being on the moon (though the computer GERTY is with him on base as well) and is, understandably, greatly anticipating his return to his family back on Earth. But after Same gets into a moon buggy accident, he awakens to find his world turned completely and horrifically upside-down. Any more information than that and the movie is spoiled for you!

I can tell you however, that 2009's Moon is a brilliant sci-fi thriller and the finest non-franchise sci-fi film since Blade Runner (1982). They stopped making sci-fi films like Moon decades ago! One has to go all the way back to 1972's Russian psychological sci-fi thriller Solyaris or Stanley Kubrick's 1968 sci-fi wonder 2001: A Space Odyssey to find anything remotely similar to Moon - and yet, the film is comprised of its own uniqueness.

The debuting Duncan Jones delivers both a gripping original story with one mind-blowing twist after another as the film's story man and a great visual product as the film's director. Jones also directs the underrated Sam Rockwell to what is undoubtedly Rockwell's best performance to date; every emotion imaginable being borrowed to portray a very interesting man who is facing some very complicated problems (you may also recognize Kevin Spacey as the voice of GERTY).

The 2009 sci-fi film Moon - like 2001, Solyaris, and Blade Runner - is a sci-fi standout within its rich cinematic decade.


CBC Rating: 9/10