Moon 2009

Ben Mankiewicz, At the Movies: Very inventive. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: This eerie drama harks back to sci-fi movies of the late 60s and early 70s that explored inner as well as outer space. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Mr. Rockwell gives a brilliant performance, the physical production is impressive and Moon made me think. Read more

Michael Upchurch, Seattle Times: With its artful use of old-school miniatures rather than computer graphics, Moon engages the eye as much as the mind. Here's a canny director who doesn't let technical prowess overwhelm his sure, resourceful sense of human drama and character. Read more

Ruth Hessey, MovieTime, ABC Radio National: An eccentric sci-fi which cleverly deconstructs the mythology of the Star Treks and Star Wars which have colonised the future of our imaginations with their glamour, self-importance and operatic sound tracks. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: Moon is enjoyable as much for its small scale and solid execution as for its crazy twists and creeping existential dread. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Moon is first-rate science fiction, tackling such issues as identity, individuality and the effects of isolation on the psyche and the soul. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Written and directed by the first-time director Duncan Jones, Moon devotes itself to the mystery of the multiplying Sams. It's a modest, melancholic undertaking, and a little virtuous, too. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: As the two Sams struggle to find their humanity, the film struggles to find entertainment within the esoteric. While they're trying to figure it out, we're left stranded on the dark side of the moon. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: It just may be the most boring movie ever made -- period. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Moon is the first feature to be directed by Duncan Jones, who is David Bowie's son, and he brings it a grimy industrial look, as well as witty touches like giving Gerty a smiley-face screen that changes expression in tandem with Spacey's voice. Read more

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: This is Rockwell's movie. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Most contemporary sci-fi movies come on with all CGI-guns blazing, trying to blow the roof off the theater. Moon settles for trying to blow your mind instead. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR.org: Start calculating the costs to Lunar Industries of its singular form of devaluing, and Moon's central premise stops making sense. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Why don't we see movies this mesmerizing more often? Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Though we love pretentious grand sci-fi, this film feels kind of thin, just a corporate scandal-philosoph'cal show. Read more

Sara Vilkomerson, New York Observer: The whole film feels like a throwback to classic sci-fi films (think 2001, Blade Runner), days that didn't rely so much on CGI but on good old-fashioned and clammy human panic. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: For a 'paranoid thriller' to work, the paranoia has to rise and rise until a climax at the finale, not give away the game halfway in. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: In the end, Moon raises disturbing ethical questions about science and bioengineering, but it's the emotional questions the film poses -- about memory, about family, about identity -- that really resonate. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Moon is closer to what die-hards expect when they hear the term 'sci-fi,' and its existence reminds us that serious movies within this genre are not dead -- they're just hiding. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Moon is a superior example of that threatened genre, hard science-fiction, which is often about the interface between humans and alien intelligence of one kind of or other, including digital. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Director Duncan Jones (son of David Bowie), working from a script by Nathan Parker, pulls off sci-fi miracles on a $5 million shoestring. Moon is a potent provocation that relies on ideas instead of computer tricks to stir up excitement. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: As a piece of entertainment, Moon is a failed experiment. Yet though it never becomes enjoyable or gets even within hailing distance of fun, it has some interesting ideas. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Directed with a sure hand by Duncan Jones, Moon is the anti-Transformers, a science fiction tale that owes as much to fiction as to science. Read more

Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Ultimately, Moon isn't quite the transcendent experience that it clearly strives to be. But as ambitious science fiction, it achieves liftoff. Read more

Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail: Watching Moon is kind of like seeing a booster rocket thrust seventies' sci-fi films deeper into orbit. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The under-appreciated Rockwell finally gets a leading role -- make that roles -- worthy of his considerable talent. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: The film is not entirely logical, but it raises pleasing questions and looks beautiful. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: An intelligent, evocative and deceptively low-key sci-fi adventure. Read more

Dennis Harvey, Variety: Moon actually gets a little dull in the later reels, just when it should be peaking in mystery and tension. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Impressively pulled together on a modest budget, Moon has a strong lead and a valid philosophical premise but, despite Bell's fissured psyche, the drama is inert. Ground control to Major Tom: Moon orbits an idea, but it doesn't go anywhere. Read more

Dan Zak, Washington Post: Storywise, Moon fails to live up to the promise of its premise. There's plenty of atmosphere, but little gravity. Read more