Film Reviews
Moon (2009)
In this sci-fi thriller, Sam Bell has only two weeks left on his three year contract to "harvest" Helium-3 for Lunar Industries on the far side of the moon. He constitutes a crew of exactly one person, and so he's desperately lonely and eager to go home. He talks to his plants, runs on the tread mill, whittles a replica of home out of wood, and lives for the video feeds from his beloved Tess. His only companion is the "robotic assistant" Gerty, who is voiced by Kevin Spacey and expresses himself with emoticons. As the movie unfolds, Sam learns why he's a crew of one, or so he thought, and even more importantly, why one at a time. Going home isn't as simple as it first seemed. Lunar Industries boasts the cleanest energy available to earthlings, and praises its lone lunar employee. But harvesting Helium-3 looks like strip mining, and, strangely, there's no live communication feed. This film isn't about a lonely astronaut, or even about evil corporations, but about what it means to be human. Human identity is embedded in the cosmic status quo; "we're people, not computerized programs," says Sam. Or so he wished.