IMDB Plot Synopsis: Astronaut Sam Bell has a quintessentially personal encounter toward the end of his three-year stint on the Moon, where he, working alongside his computer, GERTY, sends back to Earth parcels of a resource that has helped diminish our planet's power problems.
- Insert obligatory “Space Oddity” joke due to the fact that David Bowie’s son, Duncan Jones, directed this.
- Speaking of rock royalty, Trudie Styler produced this movie. I don’t know why it never occurred to me that she had a career outside of having marathon sex sessions with Sting.
- I know that anything is bound to feel incredibly suspenseful after seeing the flat lined Public Enemies the other day, but this movie really brought the anxiety and anticipation in spades, right out of the gate. It’s all about the interplay between Sam’s slow recognition that little things are amiss and GERTY’s constant, soothing assertions that everything is fine.
- GERTY is great! And it’s nice to have a space robot who isn’t bent on killing everyone. He’s complicit in Lunar’s grand elaborate plans for staffing the harvesting station, but he also manages to circumvent his role as accomplice to assist Sam II in escaping in the He-3 pod. I especially loved the happy faces that conveyed GERTY’s emotions in a way that his monotone, bored Lester Burnham voice could not. The happy faces were just slightly exaggerated to make them feel more scary than reassuring; their eyes were too close set, their mouths too large and too high on the faces. It created this weird eeriness that kept you unsure as to whether or not GERTY was going to turn on Sam in the end. Way to keep me on my toes, Dr. Jones!
- Loved the line about the giant sleeping bag-esque suit looking like a radioactive tampon or a banana with a yeast infection.
- Because Sam I was apparently unable to heal after his accident, I kept thinking that maybe Lunar genetically engineered their clones to be lysine deficient so that unless
HalGERTY administered lysine on a regular basis, Sam would die. Apparently not. I think the time line over the course of the film is also much shorter than it felt like, so that would also explain why his wounds didn’t heal (although it doesn’t explain why he deteriorated at such an alarming rate). - Sam gets his hair cut with a Suck’n'Cut, omg. It’s sucking his will to live! Oh, the humanity!
- I liked the little continuity details, like how Sam I marked off time with a dry erase marker on the stainless steel wall beside the toilet, but then after they awakened the next clone and Sam went back to the wall to draw more happy faces, the original faces were erased but you could see a faint residue of the old faces on the steel.
- In my mind, all the Sam clones are secretly building the same miniature model town Alec Baldwin built in Beetlejuice.
- Why is it that in movies taking place in the future, no one ever watches TV/movies or listens to music made past the 1980s?
- Loved the production design. I know it owes about 90% of its success to 2001: A Space Odyssey, but still. I like how in the future, space stations never have walls covered in buttons and knobs and screens. I could live with that kind of minimalism.
- Score = FANTASTIC. It’s always nice when the music, you know, fits the movie and acts as a complementary narrative. Also, the piano pieces were quite tragic and as such I am convinced they were written in D Minor, which is the saddest of all keys.
- Ping pong scene = PRIME A.
- I really loved all the minor details that spoke to trying to maintain some sense of self and some grip on reality/humanity despite the extreme and utter isolation of cohabiting with a robot on the moon. Sam II’s refusal to shake Sam I’s hand was absolutely devastating and it made GERTY’s consoling metallic hook on his shoulder later on that much more upsetting. Even something as simple as the fuzzy dice in the MUV (Moon Utility Vehicle™) was at once kitschy, familiar, and reassuring. Ack, poor sad guy.
- Sam Rockwell is FABULOUS and despite this movie’s mid-year release, I hope it doesn’t get overlooked come awards season.
- This movie is the opposite of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. See it if you want to have your intelligence rewarded, not insulted. See it if you feel like restraint can take you a hell of a lot farther than excess. See it if you want to see a movie that won’t make you hate yourself afterwards. Oh, and see it instead of seeing Star Trek for the four gazillionth time because this is also a quality, quality sci-fi picture.
No comments yet.