Saturday, July 4, 2009

the american sci fi mind fuck: history and future

MOON stars Sam Rockwell and was directed by Duncan Jones. The film is about an astronaut (rockwell) alone on the moon harvesting helium to curb the energy shortage on earth. he is assisted by a computer named gertie (voiced by kevin spacey). at the end of the three years on the moon base something strange happens. that is all i am going to say plotwise (which is actually more than i actually talk about in terms of plot). the movie is exquisitely done. jones did a fantastic job with a sparse and sterile set and a moon surface that evocatively expresses lonliness and isolation. the score was also magnificent and perfectly suited the film. sam rockwell continues to prove how absolutely underrated he is as an actor though the upcoming g-force probably puts a dent in that statement (g force is about guinea pigs that are pilots)

number of poo jokes in moon: 1
number of poo jokes in trailer for g-force: 90298340298340928340298325

when i was coming out of the theatre wanting to talk about it i was left with a hearty amount of wonder and amazement at the events of the film that transpired. im not going to spoil anything but your mind will be fucked.

that got me thinking of other films that have given my brain a good rogering and a few come to mind: most david lynch (inland empire esp), noriko's dinner table (brilliant japanese film), solyaris (the tarkovsky one which i think inspired moon to a certain extent at least stylistically), primer and the man from earth. i am going to talk a bit about the latter two or at least the example of their mindfucking.

both primer and the man from earth are baffling films that deal with complex philosophical and scientific ideas. both films involve time travel, question of being, and the question of self. on the other hand, both are low budget independent and for the most part, not very well acted but that doesnt matter. the scripts for each of them leave the viewer guessing at the end or at least very confused.

moon, like the two films do not tie everything into a neat little package which is one of the major problems with most people's perception of film. sometimes, questions arent such a bad thing. ambiguous endings bring many to an rage like state of anger. i remember some friends of mine were really upset at the end of no country for old men or even in bruges. they watched the movie waiting for a payoff that never came.

ive always that a film was about the journey rather than the ending. im not upset when people spoil movies for me by telling me the ending because that is just one piece of the puzzle...its a major a piece that tells you what the topic is but its fun putting the rest together.

in the spirit of that, i bring you the SPOILERS to moon, the man from earth, primer, and transformers: revenge of the fallen. they are written below in white text; just scroll over them to read the twists

::SPOILERS:::
moon: he meets himself discovers he is a clone and that clones have been running the moon base for years
the man from earth: the man is immortal and is (might be) jesus christ
primer: there are about 10 or 15 different aaron or abes that all went back in time and subsequently cloned themselves

transformers: shia labeouf is a cunt

like how i did that? put the funny one sort of covered and away frm the other spoilers so you can still enjoy the humor? im pretty kick ass.