Echoes of 2001 & the Twilight Zone: Rockwell gives a bravura performance

Rating: 9/10 (24 August 2009)

MOON (2009) ***1/2 Sam Rockwell gives a bravura turn as Sam Bell, an astronaut serving a 3 year contract for a lunar excavation assignment to recycle its resources for Earths' plight of energy crises in the not-too-distant-future and finds his dwindling few remaining days to be the most difficult: is the encounter with his sudden body double/clone a figment of his cabin fever indulgences or something far more sinister? Like an epic tone poem of the classic "TWILIGHT ZONE" but with some more prickly underpinnings (i.e. playing God) are at the epicenter of this intriguing and very cool sci-fi flick that echoes of "2001" (thanks largely to the robotic computer system, GERTY, an emoticon sporting co-hort – voiced with sonorous calm by Kevin Spacey – a kissing cousin of HAL) yet stands alone as a singular tale told with style and grace by rookie filmmaker Duncan Jones (nee Zowie Bowie, yes, son of "Major Tom" himself, David Bowie). One of the best genre flicks in years.