Moon is Duncan Jones‘ first feature film and stars Sam Rockwell and the voice of Kevin Spacey.

Plot:
Sam (Sam Rockwell) is an astronaut working on the moon space station by corporation Lunar Industries. They harvest helium-3 there as an alternate power source. He has a three year contract and for these three years, he’s completely alone on the space station, except for talking computer GERTY. Now his time on the moon is coming to an end but it seems that Sam is slowly going crazy.

Moon really blew my mind. While the plot twist didn’t surprise me, I didn’t care about that because it was strong enough without the surprise part. It was beautifully shot and perfectly acted by Sam Rockwell. The soundtrack was a perfect fit (well, it is by Clint Mansell after all). *gush* 

Moon is being hailed and hyped everywhere. And I’m happy to report that it deserves the laudation. I was afraid that it would be boring. “97 minutes practically only one actor? I love Sam Rockwell, but will he be able to pull that off? And what if the movie is really brainy, but not in a good way?” Those were my thoughts before I went to see it. At the same time, I was really excited. There wasn’t one movie that got so many rave reviews this year, it seemed.

And then the film started and I didn’t blink once. I was utterly enthralled. Sam Rockwell not only pulls it off, he does so with ease and perfection. [I don’t know what else to say about his performance although it would deserve a whole blog post of its own. Or thirty.] It was brainy, but in the perfect way – a good story, a well thought out plot and with big implications you can ponder afterwards and yet still be engaging and exciting as a story and a movie.

The little budget they had was very well used – the props and the (little) CGI were beautifully done. The stillness of the moon was perfectly captured by cinematographer Gary Shaw.

And the soundtrack… oh the soundtrack. Clint Mansell has written another masterpiece, which I might like even more than the Requiem for a Dream soundtrack. But in any case, it creates the perfect atmosphere.

Duncan Jones and screenwriter Nathan Parker have created a completely convincing and fascinating world which was definitely the highlight of this year’s Viennale.

Summarising: If you’re a science fiction fan, you’ve probably already seen it. [At least, if it was released near you.] But even if you aren’t, you should definitely check it out. It shouldn’t be missed.