I have been a fan of Sam Rockwell for a long time, so when he did the movie "Moon" (2009) I wasn't sure what to think. Was it going to be an updated version of "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) or some weird version of "Blade Runner" (1982). It took me longer than it probably should have to finally see this film. "Moon" sat in my Netflix queue for a couple years and it wasn't until "The Source Code" (2011) did the genius of Duncan Jones finally hit me.
The SciFi genre has taken amazing strides in the last couple years as the Star Wars generation has grown-up to challenge the status quo of what SciFi in Hollywood can be. When Star Wars hit the theaters in 1977 Duncan Jones was 6 years old, and without asking the question it is safe to say that it impacted him in ways that we are able to benefit from.
In this film there is really only two characters, Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) and the robot GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey). Sam is in the finally days of his contract to work on the moon to mine for a fuel source. There is no direct communication with Earth and the only interaction for him is with the clever emoticons of the robot GERTY. As the pending arrival of a relief crew is on the mind of Sam he begins to hallucinate resulting in an accident that is the catalyst to the events of the story. It does take a bit of time to get to this point, but once you are there your head will be spinning trying to guess what will happen next.
"Moon" isn't like other one-man movies "Buried", "Phonebooth", or "Cast Away". After watching this movie I realize that "Moon" stands on its own away from "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "Blade Runner". The only thing it has in common is that it is a brilliant movie. I stand by the 4 Quacks that I will give this film and encourage everyone to give SciFi a further consideration.
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