DVD Review: MOON

While the rest of y'all were watching the Oscar telecast, I was doing what real film-lovers do: watching an excellent movie. Moon is a low-budget (not that you'd know it from the meticulously rendered special effects) science-fiction movie starring a never-better Sam Rockwell that got a lot of buzz last year, but through various obstacles and time constraints, I was never able to see it on the big screen (and I wish I would have: every frame of this thing is beautiful).

I don't want to get too much into what it's about, since it's one of those movies you're better off knowing nothing about (there is no "twist", per se, just a gradually revealed situation that you're better off going into blind), just saying that if you're one of those people (like me) who bemoans the lack of thoughtful science-fiction in today's SyFy world, this is the movie for you.

Rockwell's performance is nothing short of a miracle, and it's only a matter of time before this guy starts racking up the awards for his tireless string of dead-solid perfect acting turns (somebody throw Rockwell a retard role so that he can get his Oscar, will ya?). He does something that only the best actors ever do: you can see his characters thinking, figuring things out, deciding how to react to things. It's the polar opposite of the Harrison Ford Method of Pointing and Shouting at Stuff, and while it will never make him a marquee star, he's that rare actor who improves a movie simply by being in it.

It's a sad little movie about lonliness, and there's not much in the way of high-concept story going on here, but it pays off huge dividends to smart, patient viewers. It may be slow and quiet, but it is never boring.

Acting: flawless. Cinematography: capture any frame and you have a picture suitable for framing. Direction: assured. Script: smart.

It's a nearly perfect movie. You can get it at Red Box if you're too lazy to go out of your way for it.