I've seen it twice now, the second time followed by a Q&A Duncan did at Cineworld, Dublin. He was funny and revealed some interesting points about the making of the film, which seems to have been a real labour of love. He's embarked on Q&A sessions over the last few weeks in a number of cities to help promote it. At the end of the session in Cineworld, he urged the audience to let a few other people know about it, because having spent their advertising budget already, word of mouth is the only way the film will get around.
The movie was made for $5 million (a comparatively tiny budget for a sci-fi movie), and features Sam Rockwell (an actor I've already written about here for his performance in 'Choke') and the voice of Kevin Spacey as 'GERTY'. All this plus a score by Clint Mansell which is really fantastic. Set in the near future, when mankind uses resources from the moon to provide clean energy on earth, the movie initially taps into fears about scarcity of natural resources here on earth but without being preachy or unrealistic. This is probably it's strength throughout, in fact- it is realistic to the ground. There is no improbable design or stupid premises, as comes with so many modern sci-fi films. It's sci-fi done very well, a film about people, which doesn't get lost in gimmicks, special effects and brain-eating aliens.
What's also incredible is how a film which really wears it's influences on it's sleeve (with passing references to 2001, Alien, Silent Running) can come across seeming so fresh and individual, and not for one minute derivative. Jones does a superb job, crafting a subtle and touching human story against the harsh and barren terrain of the moon. And again, Sam Rockwell gives another fantastic performance. Oscars? Hmmmm....
