Duncan Jones is most persuasive when he keeps science fiction close to one troubled person. We rate Moon highly for its patient attention to Sam Rockwell, though the mystery loses pace as it supplies answers.
Fi1m perspective
In Moon (2009), Sam Rockwell's Sam Bell is isolated in space and increasingly uncertain about himself. Duncan Jones stays close to him, making the questions about identity matter because they trouble a person we have come to care about. We were moved by Rockwell's vulnerability, which makes the loneliness convincing even as the mystery loses some of its grip. Jones gives the performance time and allows a few welcome jokes. We recommend this thoughtful debut with a reservation about its suspense, rather than its quietness.
Source Code (2011) carried that interest in psychological pressure into a thriller with a firm place for human drama. The video-game adaptation Warcraft (2016) then took Jones into franchise filmmaking, where pacing and execution drew criticism. Mute (2018), long in development and set in the same universe as Moon, was another ambitious undertaking with uneven results. We would be cautious about treating the move towards larger productions as evidence of progress; the smaller story remains our starting point.
Jones has described the setting of Moon as secondary to its human drama, and Rockwell makes that choice persuasive. The enclosed storytelling belongs to an older science-fiction tradition, but the performance keeps its questions about identity from feeling remote. Writer Nathan Parker's engaging dialogue also gives Jones something worth lingering over between discoveries. There is pleasure in spending time with Bell, even when the film is not advancing our understanding of his predicament, and that helps explain why the uneven pace does not undo it.
The difficulty comes when answers do arrive. Jones and Parker are less sure of how to move from one scene to the next once the puzzle becomes clearer, leaving stretches that seem to wait for the plot. The slower pace also makes the film's influences more distracting. We would welcome more suspense in those passages without asking Jones to hurry Rockwell through his work. Start with Moon, provided a tightly sustained mystery is not the evening's first requirement.
Biography
Duncan Jones is a British film director, producer and screenwriter. Born on 30 May 1971 in London, he is the son of musician David Bowie and model Angie Bowie. He studied at the College of Wooster and London Film School, and began his career directing commercials and the short film Whistle (2002).
Jones made his feature debut with the science-fiction film Moon (2009), for which he also wrote the story. The film won him the BAFTA Award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer, as well as the British Independent Film Award for Best British Independent Film.
His subsequent features include Source Code (2011), Warcraft (2016) and Mute (2018).
