Review: “Moon”

Astronaut Sam Bell works on the moon. He’s ending his three-year contract in two weeks, and, except for the presence of a robot voiced by an atonal Kevin Spacy, he has been alone the entire time.

“Moon” is a two-man show played by one man, actor Sam Rockwell, who carries it the whole way. Director Duncan Jones creates fluid scenes, combining Rockwell’s alternating performances and amplifying the paranoia in the tight quarters of the moon base. In one scene, Bell plays a pingpong game against his clone, going in and out of his different shots.

Bell oversees giant robots that farm Helium-3 from the moon dust, which provides power for most of Earth. He keeps in contact with his wife and daughter via webcam and watches his family live without him.

Bell talks to himself and focuses on building a model of his hometown. He hallucinates while checking out a broken robot and is stranded on the dark side of the moon. He is rescued by his clone, and then things get weird.

Jones, who is David Bowie’s son, conjures a filthier “2001: A Space Odyssey” with “Moon.”

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