I’m a sci-fi nut, love it to bits, and yet in my list of top films ever sci-fi fares poorly. Whether I’m just too picky or whether there are genuinely few epic sci-fi movies I don’t know. What I do know is that 2009 was a great year for sci-fi and today’s choice reflects just that. Worthy of mention with the likes of Silent Running, Blade Runner, Solaris and 2001: A Space Odyssey today’s choice reflects the ability of movies to make you think and wonder about ideas bigger than yourself.
The third best movie released in Ireland in 2009 is…
Astronaut Sam Bell lives and works on the moon, sounds like a dream job but is it? Isolated from his family for the past three years his mission is almost at an end. With nobody else stationed at the base his only companion is a robotic assistant named GERTY. Communication with his loved ones back home is sporadic at best, with only taped conversations being relayed. During a routine drive of the lunar rover Sam suffers an accident. Waking up in the infirmary he has no idea how he got there or more worrying why he is now seeing somebody that cannot possibly be there.
Why it is worthy: The performance of Sam Rockwell is staggeringly good, in all honesty it should but probably won’t garner him an Oscar nomination. As the physical and emotional centre-point for the entire film Rockwell delivers as fine a performance as is likely to be seen this year. He commands the screen with a poignant and moving portrayal of a man isolated from everyone and going slightly mad. The look of the movie is magnificent, all dazzling whites and ominous blacks. the movie in both look and theme hark back to an older time in science-fiction, a time when the stories were about wonderment and solitude. It’s unabashedly old-fashioned but it’s also very real and very familiar. The slow camera and the beautiful piano score from Clint Mansell add to the sense of isolation but it’s the little human things, the crumpled Post-Its, the furry dice in the lunar rover, that make this movie so accessible and so captivating. The twist half-way through stop this from being an existential character study a lá Solaris and turn it into something much more. It’s the quintessential human tragedy and we’re all invited to the show.
Fatal flaws: The minuscule budget, $5 million, means that some things just weren’t financially feasible and parts of the movie suffer as a result. Viewers who like their sci-fi served with a side of fizz-bang-wallop are going to sorely disappointed, in fact they may even be bored by it. At 97 minutes the movie stretches it’s marginal plot to almost breaking point and some of the tension is lost. The corporate machine as a bad guy is a little vague and ambiguous. The nature of Sam’s intruder too is somewhat mundane. It doesn’t entirely make sense and perhaps the reveal comes too quickly to have the impact it was looking for.
Verdict: An intelligent, thoughtful and thought-provoking piece of good old-fashioned sci-fi Moon shows you don’t need big budget or fancy effects to create truly great cinema.
The Countdown
25. This Is It
24. Adventureland
23. Drag Me To Hell
22. Anvil
21. In the Loop
20. Watchmen
19. The Hangover
18. Coraline
17. Public Enemies
16. (500) Days of Summer
15. Harry Brown
14. The Wrestler
13. Fantastic Mr. Fox
12. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
11. The Hurt Locker
10. A Serious Man
9. Let The Right One In
8. Gran Torino
7. Zombieland
6. Inglourious Basterds
5. UP
4. Star Trek
Yep - absolutely. What an amazing film. This and Let the Right One In were my big surprise movies this year. They came out of nowhere and were a breath of fresh air.
Simplu stunning movie. And I think I disagree a bit. For a true sci-fi fan the budget is somewhat incidental to the story-telling. I really believe this film benfited by a limitation of budget. It streamlined the movie and focused on the story and character(s)
Sam Rockwell is really at his best here. A VERY under-rated actor in my opinion.