OK, so you know how last year I raved on about The Fall? Well this year let me begin to rave about a new independent film called Moon. I had seen the trailer a few months ago and seen a few production stills and was hooked from the outset. I won't list any spoilers here but I must say it has been a long...long time since I've seen such a pure sci-fi film. Sure Star Trek was great, but that is a different kind of glossy high budget sci-fi. Moon was made for around 5.6 million dollars... for the whole film... that's not even a fraction of the VFX budget on Star Trek! Thankfully though it looks like a 50 million dollar film.
Moon is a sci-fi that takes place on, well, the moon! And the main character Sam Bell, expertly played by Sam Rockwell, is there on a 3 year contract to work for Lunar Industries mining for Helium3. His lonely 3 year tour has been rough on him and he's now 2 weeks away from returning home to his wife and child. His only companion is the base's computer 'Gerty' voiced by Kevin Spacey. Things begin to get a little weird for Sam as his contract nears it's end and it's here where the story gets really interesting. I won't say much more than that, but the movie tells a great human drama and phycological thriller without the use of big explosions or mind numbing action sequences. Director Duncan Jones handles the story with good pacing and visual grit while the erie soundtrack by Clint Mansel adds to the creepy loneliness of the moon's landscape. Tony Noble was the production designer and I'm amazed at the beautiful sets and FX they were able to pull off on such a small budget. The designs were simple and not distracting from the real, human story that Moon is about.
If you long for a refreshing Sci-fi story that is not drowned in 'hey look at me!' summer movie explosions and wonder what happened to simple human stories in the Sci-fi genre, then MOON is the movie you've been waiting for!
It's being released all over the US is various cities, so check your local theaters for when it will be playing in your area, it's worth the wait!
The amazing soundtrack is also available now on itunes! check it out!
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3 comments:
Hi Alex! Yes, all my friends that have brains are very very excited about this. Has Kubrick feel, with a noir looking bent.
(doing superyacht design in the Netherlands now, look for cool stuff soon.)
This better come to a cinema near me in the UK or I'll be very upset, been looking forward to this for ages since I first seen a behind the scenes report last year on TV !!
I'm looking forward to this too. Recently I sat in a Q&A with the director and main special effects guy, they showed off some great previs of the sets and also had the models there. It's great to see physical models being used to such an extent.
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