Who knew sci-fi wasn't dead, who knew that one actor and a robot could make an entire film, who knew that the offspring of ziggy stardust himself would make a brilliant first film about what else but life off of the planet earth, not far off earth, were talking the moon, the dark side of the moon. moon.
SAM ROCKWELL!?! Jesus Christ did this guy blow me away. Don't get me wrong, Sam is not a new actor to me, I have been following his career since his stand out performance in Frank Darabont's "the Green Mile", he was spectacular in George Clooney's directorial debut "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" and he really stood out in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Ridiculously Long Title". Seriously though, this performance launched Rockwell in a whole new realm of acting splendor for me. He is this movie. Period. And what a good movie this is. This role makes Mickey Rourke's so called "comeback" in last years "The Wrestler" look like Eddie Murphy's comeback from "Norbit". Enough about other actors, Sam Rockwell kills this, kills, murders, assassinates, any other synonym of kill, Sam does it. I will be equally blown away if the academy doesn't appreciate this performance to its full extent and deny him a Best Actor Oscar, If he doesn't get nominated I will loose faith in them entirely. He's that good. I actually ran into Mr. Rockwell at the Arclight a few days after I saw the movie, and let me be clear, I hate it when people harass celeb's, I think tmz is disgusting, however I had to shake his hand, I had to thank him, and I did, he's a nice guy. Even if he wasn't a nice guy, if he spat in my face and took a cheese grater to my shins I would still say this is hands down the best performance by a male in 2009 (so far.)
On to Mr. Duncan (I am actually the son of David Bowie) Jones. I am crossing my fingers, holding my breathe through tunnels and praying to whoever responds to us agnostics that Jones does not bust an Antoine Fuqua and only make one good movie and then continually fuck up after that. Its classic film making with a modern edge, a sharp edge, but not sharp for sharp sake, just extremely solid, no bullshit film making. A good term to use would be clean, a lot of film makers that delve into the doomed realm of sci fi find themselves ending up being overly flashy i.e. Danny Boyle in his 2007 earth saving adventure "Sunshine". This may sound a tad nerdy but I have seen the movie three times now, and each time offers up more then the last, there are so many unanswered questions that Duncan leaves to the audience and every time I have strolled out of the theater I have found the lobby an absolute buzz with little huddles of movie goers going over their own opinions and theories as to what actually went down. There is a perfect pacing here, a rarity of information control, and each released tid-bit makes you that much more enthralled in Sam's search for the truth.
Clint Mansell as always provides a solid and very eerie score that flows throughout the film. The cinematography is spot on, it makes you feel as if the moon is not some far off distant entity but an actual feasible environment. There are few 'woah' moments, because truth be told there isn't anything that special about the moon, its a bunch of gray dust, not some far off alien world. The monotony of Sam's career flows through the screen and you understand and feel his loneliness.
This is a rare sci fi gem, not something to be missed, whether if you are a die hard fan of the genre of just your average everyday moviegoer. This is great American cinema, through and through.
10/10
-Ben
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