Review of Moon (Spoiler Free)

Moon is a difficult movie to talk about without giving away too much. No, it's not one of those movies with a twist, but half of the fun is the discovery and watching how the plot unfolds. The premise is simple: in the near future, a company has discovered a way to "mine" limitless power on the dark side of the moon. A man named Sam Bell (played by Sam Rockwell) works at a mining station on the moon; he is near the end of his three-year contract on the station, where he has lived in near isolation. The satellite communications are down, so the only outside contact he has are occasional videos sent from the company and his family. His only companion is a cumbersome robot name Gerty (voiced by Kevin Spacey). While checking on a malfunctioning harvester, Sam gets into an accident. And while he is away from the station, his replacement arrives.

What makes the film so compelling is Sam, both the character and the actor. For most of the film, Sam Rockwell is alone on screen and his haggard appearance is mesmerizing. In the same moment, he can be hilarious and heartbreaking. He makes you feel Sam Bell's loneliness and desperation to go home. We get to meet and really learn about a character, something that is rare in films. The film is so beautifully well-written that even Gerty the robot is a complex character. Gerty is supposed to be a helper on the station, but ends up being more of nanny, reminding Sam to eat or suggesting he take a nap when he is agitated. On a small screen is Gerty's face, a simple yellow smiley face, which changes appropriately to frowns or other "emoticons" as needed. It would be easy to create a robot character that was simply comic relief or worse, another evil robot like HAL from 2001, but Gerty is neither. He actually makes choices within the frame of his programming, showing that he can follow the spirit of the program if not its literal intention.

The other beauty of this film is in its cinematography and design. The station is grubby, well-lived-in and full of little details: photographs, magazine cuttings, scrawled writings on sticky notes everywhere (including on Gerty), a whole garden planted in food packaging. Outside, the moonscape is silver and black, stark and alien. The earth is always in the sky, tantalizingly close but so far away.

Something I've noticed is that in the last 5-10 years, most of the best science fiction films have been low-budget, independent ones like Moon. Sometimes we can confuse scifi with special effects and explosions, but like great scifi novels, the best scifi films are really about us and our relationship with science. Moon is one of those unusual films that can make you think and feel without being heavy-handed or self-important and be fantastic and visually interesting without being overblown.

Fall TV Time - 2006

Yes, once again it is Fall TV Preview time, one of my favorite times of the year. Here is a list of TV programs I am looking forward to:

Heroes (premiers 25 September): Take one part Lost, one part The 4400 and one part X-Men. Add in a lot of hype, some very intriguing teasers and high quality special effects. I'm a little bit worried about the writing, as it is written and produced by the same team that creates Crossing Jordan, a rather light-weight and improbable crime drama (with some hokey plots and not-so-good acting), and it is rather obviously trying to capture the Lost fans. The characters listed on the show's site are not as interesting as I would like: a painter with an addiction; a cop who hears voices; a girl who is indestructible, yet wants to be normal; a son following his murdered father's crazy research, looking for answers. Yet, I am a sucker for any SciFi/Fantasy/Horror I can get, so I will definitely watch at least the first few episodes.

Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip (premiers 25 September) and 30 Rock: NBC is getting weird and a little bit senile in its old age - this fall, it has two completely different shows based on the same thing, namely the back-stage politics of producing a comedy show, a thinly veiled Saturday Night Live. Both are written by some of the best television writers around - Aaron Sorkin, the genius behind West Wing and Tina Fey, my personal hero and the genius who may have single-handedly saved Saturday Night Live (that is probably an exaggeration, but honestly, the only thing I really love to watch is the Weekend Update). I suppose if there is room for three Law and Order programs, then two SNL spin-offs doesn't seem like much of a stretch.

Smith (premiers 26 September): I am probably one of 10 people who actually liked the remake of Ocean's Eleven, so hearing about a TV show that is the adventures of high-level thieves got my attention. Fan reviews have been high, but rumors of bad reviews are everywhere. I really want to have Ray Liotta on my TV every week, however, so I'll be tuning in.

Veronica Mars (premiers 3 October): The first season's date rape plot and the murder of Lily (Veronica's best friend, for the uninitiated) storyline had me riveted. The second season somehow managed to keep the murder storyline afloat without making it boring AND gave us the startling bus crash plot (it's not as hokey as I make it sound, trust me). I can't wait to see what season three has in store.

House (5 September): I was not a faithful watcher of Dr. House and I actually only just started watching the show in reruns. I have no idea what's going on with his cane and the apparent "cure" of his painkiller addiction. Frankly, I don't give a rat's ass, as long as Dr. House is still cranky.

Lost (3 October): The sudden emergence, at the end of the season no less, of Desmond not only as an important character, but also as a good, compassionate, heroic and interesting one, left me in a state. The show introduced as many intriguing puzzles as it answered, which left many fans (on the message boards at least) feeling unfulfilled and restless. My hope is, no matter how much I love the show, that this is last season. It is skillfully written, but four+ seasons of no answers will eventually get old, even if I am still rabid for more.

Supernatural (28 September): Last season ended on a cliffhanger, with the boys and their father badly hurt from a car accident. It seems unlikely that show's writers would off either of the brothers, but the father has been a marked man from the start. It's possible that someone might be in a coma for most of the season (making him a target for the various monsters and cultists that populate the show) or that all of them will simply wake up in the first episode. I'm curious to see what cliche the writers decide on. Even for all its cliches, plot holes and predictible plots, I still think the show has potential. The chemistry between the actors is good, the soundtrack is fun and man, do I love monsters.

Dexter: Showtime is the new HBO. Who cares about Entourage (the only reason to watch it is for Jeremy Piven anyway) when you have Weeds? Plus, there is Dexter, a new series featuring Michael C. Hall (once a star on HBO's Six Feet Under) that appeals to my inner goth. Based on the book Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay, it follows the adventures of Dexter, a CSI by day and a serial killer by night. Subject matter aside, did I mention it has Michael C. Hall?