Moon

I never like to say that I prefer one movie genre to another (when asked what types of movies I like, I usually say good ones. Glib, perhaps, but true), but good Science Fiction movies are the rarest of all new releases. A new horror film seems to battle the latest comedy every weekend at the box office, whereas well executed Sci-Fi movies are released once a twice a year in a good year, and even within the genre, other genres emerge – horror films (Alien), space operas (Star Wars), philosophical exercises (2001 and Solaris), animation (Wall-E), and even comedies (Spaceballs). Science Fiction films are usually just other movie genres set in space.

Moon is mainly a philosophical exercise. The story itself is not highly original, something of a mix between 2001 and Blade Runner; the best way to describe the viewing experience is fresh, different than most of the films released over the past decade, in a good way. I wanted to see it as soon as I heard of its existence, and then I found out that the underrated Sam Rockwell is the star and that David Bowie’s son Duncan Jones is the director! This fact amazed me. If I had to choose five celebrities as possible alien beings sent to earth to engage and entertain our race, David Bowie would be number one or number two, depending on how strange you find Prince, and now I find out that his spawn is making movies, good movies. This is exciting, and it helps to explain why Moon is a terrific existential film with an atmosphere of both hope and abandonment. I can’t imagine that growing up with David Bowie as a father is a normal experience, but maybe I am wrong. Duncan’s actual name is Zowie Bowie, so probably I am right.

The film is set in a space station on the Moon that excavates Helium-3, which is sent back to Earth as a power supply. Rockwell’s character, Sam Bell, mans the space station and is nearing the end of his three year contract. His only other companion is a robot named Gerty, who talks like Keyser Soze (aka Kevin Spacey) and wheels around the complex like a hovering cable powered streetcar. The obvious reference to 2001’s on board computer, Hal 9000, adds tension; the viewer immediately questions the computer’s loyalty to Sam, who seems to be losing his sanity in the final weeks of his contract and begins to have confusing visions. At this point, a second Sam Bell shows up at the base, and Rockwell gets to shine. He is brilliant in the film. After proving in previous roles to be superb at playing hotheads and maniacs, here, he gets to play both. One of the Sams, the hothead, assumes that he is a clone and spends much of his time trying to prove to the other that they are being watched and kept unaware of secret parts of the base. The second Sam is resistant to these delusions and recedes into his own daily routine. Much like Nicholas Cage’s remarkable performance in Adaptation, Rockwell is able to always make the viewer aware of which Sam Bell they are seeing. Credit Jones as well for setting up scenes in a way to highlight the distinct, but possibly converging, paths of the two Sams.

At a brisk 90 minutes, the film tells an engaging story that essentially takes place in one small space. Had the great Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky made this film, I think it would have been better but much different. Moon is a perfect set-up to examine the human mind as it approaches its breaking point, and I feel that the film rushes to its conclusion, though if Tarkovsky were making films today, the minute a studio executive told him to trim scenes, he would either quit or go mad. Slowly paced Science Fiction seems extinct for now. We saw that a couple years ago with Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain, a 90 minute movie that crammed too much content into too brief a time frame. Moon succeeds at making the viewer think, but not too much. The film does, however, excel at entertainment. In an interview on Suicide Girls, Jones says that he intends to make a epilogue to the film. Perhaps then, I’ll get more of the philosophy I wanted this film to express.

Frost/Nixon

Cinderella Man, A Beautiful Mind, Ransom, Apollo 13, Backdraft, Parenthood, Cocoon

Splash

Researching this article, I was surprised to find that Langella also played Nixon on Broadway as well as in the initial London engagement. To say he has perfected the role is an understatement. I am largely unfamiliar with Nixon’s mannerisms and so I can’t comment on Langella’s impersonation, but I do know that Nixon was a smart politician who rose from a modest financial upbringing and overcame the loss of the 1960 presidential election to John F. Kennedy to become the 37th President of the United States in 1968. Langella portrays him as a man proud of his accomplishments and begrudgingly resigned to the damage he has done to his legacy. He reveals a sharp sense of humour, in one scene drolly proposing to call some CIA trained Cubans he knows to help track Frost and his team of researchers, and a touching sense of regret over betraying the trust of the American people. Throughout the film, we get the sense that Nixon will confess to his crime, and when he does, Langella helps the audience to sympathize with Nixon as he comes to the slow realization that his acts betrayed the sacred trust Americans hold for the president of their nation.

Oliver Platt, Kevin Bacon, and Sam Rockwell, one of the few Hollywood actors who does not do enough mainstream work, all deliver in supporting roles. Michael Sheen, who played Tony Blair in The Queen, gives a strong performance as Frost, in part because his character needs to show discomfort around Nixon and Langella’s performance is so polished that Sheen must have found it flustering to equal Langella’s intensity. Last and never least, the incomparable Clint Howard, Ron’s younger brother, and possibly the most successful bit player in movie history, makes an appearance as well. If you seek a well told story, with sharp dialogue, great acting, and interesting subject matter, Frost Nixon is sure to please.