FILM | Sky is womb

Kind of an obvious title post, seeing as the title of the film is 'Moon', but hey I love Bon Iver. I began listening to them when my boyfriend found their first album, a couple of months after it came out in 2008. I loved it from the start but didn't think it would become as popular as it has done now, three years later.

'Moon' is one of my favourite movies - it's up there with American Beauty and Fight Club (though there's lots of films I've yet to see.) The 'hard-core sci-fi' was imagined, co-written and directed by Duncan Jones, inspired by films he admired such as Space Odyssey, Silent Running, Solaris, Alien and Outland. I've watched it more than six times, and each time I love it more. The favourite place I've seen it was in the large cinema tent at Glastonbury last year - one of the few times I managed to get some respite from the burning sun which had me in pain for at least a week afterwards. I think my friends were a little underwhelmed by it, as sometimes it seems people find it a bit 'slow' if they're not paying close attention to some of the smaller details. It's a quiet sort of film until the action gets going, and the pace quickens dramatically - but the beauty is in the detail. You can see the trailer here.

Sam Rockwell is fantastic as the lonely astronaut near the end of a three year solitary mission, collecting fuel from the moon. Soon he realises that all is not as it seems, and that something is dreadfully wrong with his life on the ship, and what awaits him back on Earth. Kevin Spacey's role of the robot 'GERTY' might seem unusually small for such a reknowned actor. However, don't be fooled by the even, robotic voice Spacey adopts - his role is far from simple: GERTY is not as robotic as he seems. It wasn't a surprise to me that the film picked up the award for Best British Independent Film at the BIFA's, and was nominated for two BAFTAs in 2010, winning the award for 'Outstanding Debut'.

One of the things I found most amazing about the film was that it had a budget of only $5 million, (in comparison, Pirates of the Caribbean cost $300 million) and filming was completed in 33 days (whereas Pirates took over a year to complete).

The special effects and filming are stunning (I'd love to work on a set like that); I particularly loved the little emoticon panel on GERTY, with its sad/happy/confused faces, which seem relevant considering it is a robot, but become an ironic over-simplification later in the film. But one of the best things about the film was the score to go with it, written by Clint Mansell - he also composed the score for reknowned 'Requiem for a Dream' (which I've yet to see). The score for Moon is so good I've since downloaded the entire thing to listen to on my iPod, and I still love it even without the film to go with it.

I couldn't reccommend the film enough, and if you don't quite get it at first, watch it again! It's worth it.

Below are some screen-shots from the official trailer, and an image from here.