In 1969 man first walked on the moon. 40 years later, man makes MoonBY EMIL TIEDEMANN
I've come to the stark realization that the magic of movies doesn't lie within the trickery of a green screen, nor is it camouflaged behind the faces of the movie stars who beckon $20 million per picture. And it's not in the misleading make-up effects or the counterfeit CGI techniques. Instead, it comes from a story, preferably untold before, and one which has the dexterity to grip us from start to finish, guided on camera immaculately by a director with an eye for old-fashioned filmmaking.
As I'm sure you've picked up on, this review isn't about one of the endless big-budget, multi-plex sequels that take over the box office during the summer months (ie.
Transformers,
Harry Potter,
Terminator,
Ice Age), but rather an unassertive "indie" film called
Moon, which was the directorial debut for
Duncan Jones (who also co-wrote the script with
Nathan Parker), the son of rock icon
David Bowie. So, in the cosy balcony of Edmonton's oldest movie palace, the Princess, I settled into the 97-minute sci-fi thriller with a buddy of mine, who had smuggled in his own snacks in order to avoid doubling our movie budget for the night.
Sam Rockwell (
Frost/Nixon,
Choke) is a one-man (kinda) show in
Moon, a film scripted specifically as a vehicle for the low-key indie actor. He plays Sam Bell, an astronaut of sorts who is driven to the edge of sanity, it seems, as the end of his 3-year outer space stint nears. He's isolated from the rest of the world--literally--as he's contracted to extract the "safe, clean energy" of Helium-3 from the lunar soil of the moon, stationed on the rock for 36 consecutive months. His only companion is an all-knowing, almost-emotive robot named Gerty, voiced disconcertingly by Oscar winner
Kevin Spacey (
American Beauty,
The Usual Suspects), who's main mission is to serve and protect Bell.
Moon reeked of nostalgic sci-fi movie bliss, with an old-school feel entwined with its modern-day look, yet paying homage to the classic films that Jones grew up admiring, such as
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968),
Silent Running (1972),
Alien (1979) and
Outland (1981). Jones admitted that he "wanted to create something which felt comfortable within that canon of those science fiction films from the sort of late-'70s to early-'80s."
Jones' premiere motion picture, which cost just $5 million to film, is an enigmatic piece that delves into the hysteria that evolves when isolation and desolation take centre stage, and the director found a way to bring
Moon's viewers along for the ride. By setting the film 100% in lunar space, the audience gets a small taste of what Bell must've felt as he went through his daily routines with only a talking computer by his side, day in and day out, stumbling upon the unimaginable fate that has been bestowed upon him.
I lost track of time as I admired the spectacular scenery that can't be that far off from the real moon, complimented by the merited score supplied by part-time rock star
Clint Mansell (
Requeim for a Dream,
The Wrestler). Rockwell--who has an uncanny resemblance to
Will & Grace's
Eric McCormack at times--proved his own worth with every scene, requiring him to sample every basic human emotion in a span of an hour and a half. I've never been prone to Rockwell's work prior to
Moon, but will surely recognize his niche from this film on.
It's hard to pinpoint what I didn't like about this movie, but it becomes more apparent when I think back, sitting at the Princess with my buddy, waiting--perhaps subconsciously--for some huge explosion or physical battle between good and evil, or maybe for some Hollywood star to make a cameo. Perhaps my eyes have become accustomed to these types of corner turns. But
Moon laid essentially flat in this sense, refusing to budge from location, blurring my senses with the same pale walls and dark landscapes, and leaving Rockwell to manage the cast on his own. For others this would be draining, but it seemed to filter through me by the end, despite the occasional desire for cinematic normalcy. A mid-movie twist was enough to dribble on under these circumstances though.
Revisiting a threatened genre of moviemaking,
Moon left me wanting to go beyond the lunar experience and be a fly on the wall for Bell's audacious adventures once the credits hit the screen. So you can imagine my delight when I heard Jones was already working on an epilogue to
Moon, and ultimately wants to direct a third in the series as well. So, 40 years after
Neil Armstrong first stepped foot on Earth's closest neighbour, we find ourselves all gitty over the
Moon once again!
4/5 stars
Neill Blomkamp had a vision and it started with the 2005 short film, Alive in Joburg (our SiM Short Film of the Month this month!). His vision may have been complete (or at least put on the backburner) since Peter Jackson tapped Blomkamp on the shoulder to direct a film based on the highly successful video game, Halo. Sadly that project fell apart. Jackson has stated that “the day Halo died, District 9 was born”. Blomkamp and Jackson believed they could make a feature film based off the 6 minute short film (one of the most expensive short films ever made). District 9 was the end result.
On a $30 million dollar budget, you never can tell what is or is not CGI effects. Movies like X-Men Origins: Wolverine could learn a great deal from Blomkamp and this film. The disgusting looking aliens are almost identical at a quick glance but they are all drastically different. Most of the aliens show no intelligence, unless they are finding new ways to get cat food, except for one alien (known as Christopher Johnson by MNU) who wants to save his son and get his entire race off our world. This is when we start to see the aliens of District 9 in a new light. Showing a full range of emotional body language, Christopher Johnson helps van der Merwe on his suicidal quest that could save the aliens and cure himself.
We have been running Stories in Medium since January and have gone through many, many changes. Some of them you may have noticed and probably a few things you did not. As we shift gears to bring you a bigger range of content, we must take a small break. Now when I say "break", I mean that we are going to work on bringing you new and exciting items, not relax and have a vacation. That is at the end of August!
Standard Operating Procedure is a documentary film about the photos taken in Abu Ghraib, the prison in Iraq which became great focus of the media in 2004 and the consequences from the actions of the troops involved. Directed by Errol Morris, who is considered one of the top directors of the documentary film community, whose 2003 documentary The Fog of War won an Academy Award for Best Documentary.
Morris’ intent was to show you how the cover-up of the story and he does a good job of that. Making this film like a filmmaker would go about making a big budget movie may have hurt the film even if it was used very eloquently. Morris pulls out all the stops, getting Danny Elfman to make the thunderous score, using the playing cards with Saddam Hussein and his henchmen (that was distributed to the troops in Iraq) as well as using “ghosts” to demonstrate us the invisible forces of the commanding officers letting the torturous events occur. It just seems to fake though, not showing us the dark, ugly nature of the prison itself.
I've come to the stark realization that the magic of movies doesn't lie within the trickery of a green screen, nor is it camouflaged behind the faces of the movie stars who beckon $20 million per picture. And it's not in the misleading make-up effects or the counterfeit CGI techniques. Instead, it comes from a story, preferably untold before, and one which has the dexterity to grip us from start to finish, guided on camera immaculately by a director with an eye for old-fashioned filmmaking.
Sam Rockwell (Frost/Nixon, Choke) is a one-man (kinda) show in Moon, a film scripted specifically as a vehicle for the low-key indie actor. He plays Sam Bell, an astronaut of sorts who is driven to the edge of sanity, it seems, as the end of his 3-year outer space stint nears. He's isolated from the rest of the world--literally--as he's contracted to extract the "safe, clean energy" of Helium-3 from the lunar soil of the moon, stationed on the rock for 36 consecutive months. His only companion is an all-knowing, almost-emotive robot named Gerty, voiced disconcertingly by Oscar winner Kevin Spacey (American Beauty, The Usual Suspects), who's main mission is to serve and protect Bell.
It's hard to pinpoint what I didn't like about this movie, but it becomes more apparent when I think back, sitting at the Princess with my buddy, waiting--perhaps subconsciously--for some huge explosion or physical battle between good and evil, or maybe for some Hollywood star to make a cameo. Perhaps my eyes have become accustomed to these types of corner turns. But Moon laid essentially flat in this sense, refusing to budge from location, blurring my senses with the same pale walls and dark landscapes, and leaving Rockwell to manage the cast on his own. For others this would be draining, but it seemed to filter through me by the end, despite the occasional desire for cinematic normalcy. A mid-movie twist was enough to dribble on under these circumstances though.
