Proper science fiction

Rating: 9/10 (8 March 2013)

'Moon' is a sci-fi thriller that makes a very obvious acknowledgement of it debt to that definitive movie, '2001': it ponders (among other matters) the nature of artificial intelligence and the infinite loneliness and isolation of a life in space, while serving us with an aesthetic of sterile gleaming white, and digital communications devices that might have represented 1970's vision of the future but which already seem decades out of date. The film also addresses another sci-fi staple (though not one mentioned in Kubrick's work), namely the identity of clones, and actually does so with some skill, using its futuristic setting to explore questions of identity that have emotional impact in their own right, as well as thematic resonance in our own world. For sci-fi, this is a relatively low-budget movie: no explosions, an effective cast of one, and a set that at times looks as if it was made of Lego; yet it's sparse, haunting, and effective, and also less pretentious than its illustrious forebear.