Space Madness

Leave your preconceptions on the launch pad and blast into space for Moon. This is the new release from director Duncan Jones, who happens to be David Bowie’s son. So this is like Ground Control To Major Tom stuff right? Well it is a Space Oddity; but that’s really where any comparison to famous father slips quickly by.

Not only does the film work with great visuals of moonscapes; but there’s also a taut soundtrack by Clint Mansell, who did the intensely haunting music of Requiem For A Dream.

And this is a future projection that stands apart from the usual sci fi offerings. Done on a low budget, it may lack the fireworks of the genre. Intead it is gritty and realistic, yet quite convincing with its space scenes and technology.

In Moon there is largely only one actor on screen…actually two…but they’re both Sam Rockwell. His character, Sam Bell is winding down a 3 year stint with a mining operation on the moon, when his solitary existence is confronted with a visitor….who happens to be himself. Huh?! Is the visitor an alien, a robot, a clone, or has Sam gone insane?

And if all this doesn’t sound spacey enough; there’s Kevin….Spacey that is. Or at least his voice as a Halesque robot reminiscent of 2001 Space Odyssey. But is he sinister or as benevolent as his smiley face implies?

So catch a little space madness to commemorate Apollo 11, fourty years later. “When you’re 250,000 miles from home, the hardest thing to face is yourself.”