DVD Review: Source Code

Director Duncan Jones’ second film is another intelligent, eloquent science fiction thriller.

Sincere without growing mawkish, intelligent without becoming geeky or pretentious, Duncan Jones’ Source Code justifies the promise the director showed with his similarly ambitious science fiction mindbender Moon. Like that debut effort, Jones’ second film reveals a warm and compassionate concern not just for the workings of the science fiction elements of story but also for the human emotions spun out of their wake, and the emphasis – especially in the last half-hour – is on character development and interaction.

Army captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) is the covert operative for Project: Beleaguered Castle, an Air Force counter-terrorism group that can project his consciousness into the “after-image” of recent temporal events and allow him to occupy a host body of comparable age, height, and size. It’s complicated science, though explained via simplified metaphor by the project’s direct Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright.) Source Code technology is not exactly time travel, and not entirely jumping between parallel worlds, but Stevens’ jaunts into the remnants of immediately recent events allow the project to gather intelligence about upcoming terrorist attacks.

His current mission involves finding the bomb secreted aboard a Chicago-bound commuter train before those responsible detonate a dirty bomb within the city itself. But increasing disorientation hampers Steven’s effectiveness, even as he’s increasingly distracted by Christina, the woman (Michelle Monaghan) accompanying his host body into the city. Stevens tries, tries again to locate the bomb and the passenger he believes may set it off. But each failure – he has only eight minutes to complete his mission – results in the train’s explosive destruction and a painful jolt back to the project’s headquarters.

Worse, he suspects the doctor as well as Goodwin, his mission control operator (Vera Farmiga) are less than candid with the information they provide him, both about his role in the project as well as the events surrounding his recruitment into it. Stevens remembers serving as a helicopter pilot in Afghanistan but nothing of the last two months, and Goodwin’s evasion of questions, as well as Rutledge’s condescension, make him even less trusting.

The second act centers on Stevens’ abortive attempts to apprehend the bomber and disarm the bomb, even while he draws closer to the girl. Stevens also reasons he can use his time on the train to research the project itself and his service in Kandahar, the better to fill in the blanks of his memory. Each return trip home – he fails many times, often in ways that ought to evoke pity from the audience – reveals his mission capsule in greater disrepair. Pressing Goodwin for more information, he learns he may not be in the capsule at all but that his physical body may reside somewhere else entirely.

But he eventually prevails, locating the bomber and confronting him – once disastrously, the second time with success. With a train full of suspects, Ben Ripley’s script has fun manipulating audience expectations regarding the bomber’s identity: the nature of his evil more closely resemble homegrown anarchist Timothy McVeigh than 21st Century notions of Islamic extremism. The remainder of the film focuses on the nature of the bottle reality itself, whether Stevens can escape his real-world fate, and whether he can mend his relationship with his estranged father and jumpstart a romance with Christina. The willingness to devote so much time to events and details outside the ostensible main plot thread is a curious structural decision, but thanks to Ripley and Jones’ expert handling the film never once sags in suspense or pace.

We’ve said this before. It bears repeating: pretty.

The actors are perfectly if sometimes predictably cast. Gyllenhaal is a talented and versatile actor who’s still yet to find his niche with audiences, but here the action chops that went largely unnoticed in last year’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (coincidentally, another adventure driven by short-distance time travel) get better use in the heightened tension of the railway plot. Still, he fares better in the character-driven scenes, especially with Farmiga and the actor playing his father (the actor’s identity is too much of a treat, and concession, to long-time sci-fi fans to divulge). As the sweet, beguiling Christina, Monaghan plays to the type she’s already performed in a half-dozen films. She’s a lovely and talented actress, but the role does little to showcase the range she’s demonstrated elsewhere.

Wright is spot-on as the pompous doctor who sees Stevens as nothing more than a resource, and Farmiga’s character arc – efficient to humane – may make her the film’s most fully development personality. Whereas Moon was centered – and carried – by the formidable acting talents of Sam Rockwell, the larger script gives Jones time and space to explore more complicated character interactions. Like Moon, the protagonist is separated by space and technology from the answers he needs; the answers this time rely less on shock value and more on character sympathy.

As with probably any great science fiction film, enjoyment relies somewhat on your willing suspension of disbelief, in giving the film license to let a hole slip into the plot when perhaps you’re less likely to notice. But in the meantime it offers the best kind of not just science fiction but fiction itself – rooted in humanity and letting emotions rather than spectacle guide its way. Source Code brings that all together while still maintaining its action-charged momentum – it’s a lot more movie than it seems.

- Michael Kabel

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Review: Source Code

Director Duncan Jones’ second film is another intelligent, eloquent science fiction thriller.

Articulate and emotional without ever growing maudlin, intelligent without seeming geeky or pretentious, Duncan Jones’ Source Code justifies the promise the director showed with his similarly ambitious science  fiction mindbender Moon. Like that debut effort, Jones’ second film reveals a warm and compassionate concern not just for the workings of the science fiction elements of story but also for the human emotions spun out of their wake. The high energy marketing campaign focuses on the film’s time travel and exploding train aspects, but don’t be fooled: Jones and his cast and crew have created a film as much about loss and its aftermath as much as bombast and adventure, and the emphasis – especially in the last half-hour – is on character development and interaction.

Army captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) is the covert operative for Project: Beleaguered Castle, an Air Force counter-terrorism group that can project his consciousness into the after-image of recent temporal events and allow him to occupy a host body of comparable age, height, and size. It’s complicated science, complex enough to stretch suspension of disbelief by force alone, though explained via simplified metaphor by the project’s direct Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright.) Source Code technology is not exactly time travel, and not entirely jumping between parallel worlds, but Stevens’ jaunts into the afterimage of immediately recent events allow the project to gather intelligence about upcoming terrorist attacks.

In particular, his current mission involves finding the bomb secreted aboard a Chicago-bound commuter train before those responsible detonate a dirty bomb within the city itself. But increasing disorientation hampers Steven’s effectiveness, even as he’s increasingly distracted by Christina, the woman (Michelle Monaghan) accompanying his host body into the city. Stevens tries, tries again to locate the bomb and the passenger he believes may set it off. But each failure – he has only eight minutes to complete his mission – results in the train’s explosive destruction and a painful jolt back to the project’s headquarters.

Worse, Stevens suspects the doctor as well as Goodwin, his mission control operator (Vera Farmiga) are less than candid with the information they provide him, both about his role in the project as well as the events surrounding his recruitment into it. Stevens remembers serving as a helicopter pilot in Afghanistan but nothing of the last two months, and Goodwin’s evasion of questions, as well as Rutledge’s condescension, make him even less trusting.

The film’s second act centers on Stevens’  abortive attempts to apprehend the bomber and disarm the bomb, even while he draws closer to the girl. Stevens also reasons he can use his time on the train to research the project itself and his service in Kandahar, the better to fill in the blanks of his memory. Each return trip home – Stevens fails his mission many times, often in ways that will probably evoke pity from the audience – reveals his mission capsule in greater disrepair. Pressing Goodwin for more information, Stevens learns he may not be in the capsule at all but that his physical body may reside somewhere else entirely.

But he eventually prevails, locating the bomber and confronting him – once disastrously, the second time with success. With a train full of suspects, Ben Ripley’s script has fun manipulating audience expectations regarding the bomber’s identity: the nature of his evil more closely resemble homegrown anarchist Timothy McVeigh than 21st Century notions of Islamic extremism. The remainder of the film focuses on the nature of the bottle reality itself, whether Stevens can escape his real-world fate, and whether he can mend his relationship with his estranged father and jumpstart a romance with Christina. The willingness to devote so much time to events and details outside the ostensible main plot thread is a curious structural decision, but thanks to Ripley and Jones’ expert handling the film never once sags in suspense or pace.

We’ve said this before. It bears repeating: pretty.

The actors are perfectly if sometimes predictably cast. Gyllenhaal is a talented and versatile actor who’s still yet to find his niche with audiences, but here the action chops that went largely unnoticed in last summer’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (coincidentally, another adventure driven by short-distance time travel) get better use in the heightened tension of the railway plot. Still, he fares better in the more character-driven scenes, especially with Farmiga and the actor playing his father (the actor’s identity is too much of a treat, and concession, to long-time sci-fi fans to divulge). Playing the sweet, beguiling Christina, Monaghan plays to the type she’s already performed in a half-dozen films. She’s a lovely and talented actress, but the role does little to showcase the range she’s demonstrated elsewhere.

Jones wisely casts two ringer character actors to play the heavier parts. Wright is spot-on as the pompous doctor who sees Stevens as nothing more than a resource, and Farmiga’s character arc - efficient to humane – may make her the film’s most fully development personality. Whereas Moon was centered – and carried – by the formidable acting talents of Sam Rockwell, the larger script gives Jones time and space to explore more complicated character interactions. Like Moon, the protagonist is separated by space and technology from the answers he needs; the answers this time rely less on shock value and more on character sympathy.

Like probably any great science fiction film, enjoyment relies somewhat on your willing suspension of disbelief, and in giving the film license to let a hole slip into the plot when perhaps you’re less likely to notice; those flaws will also likely emerge with repeated viewing. But in the meantime it offers the best kind of not just science fiction but fiction itself – rooted in humanity, letting emotions guide its way, and dedicated to continuing larger traditions while modifying them for new audiences. Source Code brings that all together while still maintaining its action-charged momentum. Don’t let the slam-bang advertisements fool you – the film is a lot more than it lets on.

- Michael Kabel

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DVD Review: Iron Man 2

Overstuffed, top-heavy sequel arrives on DVD and Blu-Ray September 28.

If sequels to successful films rarely live up to their fan bases’ expectations, then sequels to films that surprised audiences have twice as much work cut out for them. The surprise of discovery and the thrill of infatuation clear away, and the hard work of earning an audience’s respect – while justifying their initial enthusiasm – settles over the sequel like a heavy cloth from which the story has to emerge.

The first Iron Man surprised almost everyone a couple of years ago by presenting better entertainment than even fans of the Marvel Comics superhero likely anticipated. Its sequel, arriving barely two years later into theatres but atop a crest of eager audience expectation, feels rushed and over-reaching for much of its wall-to-wall, action-packed proceedings. Luckily an enviable ensemble of actors, including most especially Robert Downey, Jr., work to keep the whole project from dissolving into noise and chaos. But it takes their combined efforts, and they succeed just barely.

Following Tony Stark’s (Downey, Jr.) revelation to the world that he is in fact the armored hero, his use of the suit has rankled his competitors and lawmakers alike, especially his bumbling rival Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) and a pompous senator (Garry Shandling) who would like the armor’s secrets for, respectively, themselves and for the government. But the maverick Stark ain’t having it, insisting he has “successfully privatized world peace” and that he serves the people at his own pleasure. “You can always count on me to pleasure myself,” he quips.

But pride goeth before a fall, and when Russian physicist Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) attacks Stark during the Monaco Grand Prix, it sets off a domino chain of events that crash Stark’s world down around him. “All I have to do is sit here and watch,” Vankdo taunts from a jail cell, “as the world will consume you.” Hammer later recruits him to perfect his own flawed armor technology, while the U.S. military exerts increasing pressure through Stark’s buddy Colonel James Rhodes (Don Cheadle, replacing Terrence Howard) to cooperate with their own agendas. Making matters worse, the palladium that powers the reactor in Stark’s chest is slowly poisoning his blood, provoking increasingly erratic and self-indulgent behavior that alienates him from Rhodes as well as secretary/love interest Pepper Pots (Gwyneth Paltrow).

Relief and assistance come from directions both expected but welcome and unexpected and disappointing. The spies of SHIELD, led by the eyepatch-wearing Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) have the means to treat the blood poisoning but want Stark’s cooperation in their own efforts; to that end, they’ve had a sexy agent (Scarlett Johansson) posing as a legal assistant within his company for weeks. Stark also learns his father Howard (John Slattery) was a founding member of the organization, and that an old filmstrip contains the aloof elder Stark’s vision for his son’s greatness and salvation. At this point the film comes closest to coming completely off the rails: to see the individualist Stark reduced to daddy issues, and to have a solution handed to him, is probably the film’s greatest and cheapest fault.

All of this and more is compressed into a two-hour runtime, with the result that the script often bulges at its seams. The first hour is a flurry of exposition and explanation that sometimes loses its coherence, and for audiences not already well-steeped in the comic mythology the confusion is likely to be compounded. The translation from comic book to screen is almost never without a few bumps, but here a persistent sense of something going unsaid, something taken for granted, permeates the characters’ dialogue and interaction. Little is done with the new characters to establish their connections to one another, save for some brief explanation by way of tossed-off speech. Typically, that speech is Stark making a wise crack about them.

The hurried sense of chaos unfortunately takes its toll on the performers. Rourke’s casting was heavily publicized, but his role remains opaque and largely devoid of nuance. He’s a bad guy, evil and driven by revenge, with little else complicating him. For as entertaining as Cheadle and Johansson are in their parts, there’s no compelling reason for their participation except that their characters are mainstays of the source comic; in a telling sign, none of the new characters are ever called by their comic code names: Stark dubs Cheadle “War Machine” out of context, Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff is never referred to as “The Black Widow,” Vanko is never called “Whiplash.” To be fair, Johansson’s fight sequences have an exciting fluidity in contrast to the high-tech armor everywhere else while Cheadle, the consummate actor’s actor, manages to seem completely at home in what’s essentially a fighter jet worn as a suit.

Rockwell does his best with an underwritten part, but Hammer is too self-sabotaguing to ever seem a credible threat to Stark’s genius; if ever a villain performance actually needed more mustache twirling, this may be the case. John Slattery plays Howard Stark as an unmistakable riff on Walt Disney in the 1960′s, when the animator had turned his energies towards a utopian futurism that likely seemed naive even then. (It’s a weird counterpoint to his normal role as the cynical Roger Sterling of Mad Men.) Of the returning characters, Downey Jr. is excellent yet again, building on Stark’s less endearing qualities while undercutting them with vulnerabilities and needs he has no idea how to express. Paltrow is exactly the same as she was last time, no more and no less; Jackson is fine but looks somewhat less than convincing marching around in a leather trench coat and riding boots in broad daylight.

The Marvel Universe is nothing if not interconnected, and all the superfluous characters and story threads piled over one another are all leading to 2012′s The Avengers. Like last time, fans will want to stick around after the credits for a brief scene that teases the ongoing build-up to that film. In the meantime, this flm feels too rushed, too ambitious, and preoccupied to match the giddy revelation of its predecessor. But it’s still entertaining thanks primarily to what was right with the first film, even while introducing some new elements that stand on their own. It’s an above average sequel to a superior action film, not great but pretty good, moving the ongoing story forward while only sacrificing some momentum.

- Michael Kabel

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Our (Rest Of The) Summer Movie Guide

Quick previews of nine films premiering in July, August, and September.

How’s your summer going? Enjoying the heat wave? The first official day of summer was just a couple of weeks ago, June 21, though of course it felt like that time of year, both in the climate and in our culture, for weeks before that. The summer movie season continues to go through its ups and downs, with slam dunk hits like The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and Toy Story 3 raking in cash hand over fist, with more predictably lucrative fare like Grown Ups and The Last Airbender also making bank.  

We still believe it’s been a paltry summer for film, with not even a surprise like last year’s Moon to break up the doldrums. Still, there’s hope on the horizon. The following films all come out in the next few weeks, some in limited but most with wide release schedules planned. We’ve tried to include a range of tastes.

Salt - (July 23) When CIA covert operative Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) is accused by a Soviet defector of plotting to kill the president, she goes on the run to try and clear her good name and get to the truth. Directed by Philip Noyce (The Quiet American) from a script by Kurt Wimmer (Street Kings) and Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential).  Our take: This is the third time in five years Jolie has played a spy/assassin, and we kind of think she could slink her way through a part like this in her sleep. Also on familiar ground are the always-welcome Liev Shreiber as Salt’s colleague and the ubiquitous Chiwetel Ejiofor as a fellow agent. We’re lukewarm at best about this one: for all our complaints about wanting more films for grown-ups, this seems like an auto-pilot effort by all involved.

Get Low (Limited July 30) – A notorious mountain man (Robert Duvall) plans to attend his own funeral with the help of a wily funeral director. Old secrets and grudges come to light as the event turns into a local sensation. Our take: High hopes for this one, as we suspect it could be the oddball surprise of the year given the talent both veteran and emerging involved. We’re anxious for more Murray after cracking up at his beyond-meta cameo in last year’s Zombieland, and Duvall all but owns the copyright on these kind of grizzled roles. Academy Award-winning short film director Aaron Schneider (Two Soldiers) makes his feature debut, with a script co-written by C. Gaby Mitchell (Fallen Angels) and Chris Provenzano (Mad Men) from a story by newcomer Scott Seeke. Read our full preview here.

Middle Men (August 6) Set in the far-flung past of 1995 (We were in college!), the based on a true story reveals  how an otherwise upstanding businessman (Luke Wilson) started the first online billing company to deal exclusively with the adult entertainment industry. Along the way he gets involved with porn starlets, Russian gangsters, federal agents, and any variety of con artists. Our take: We are shocked to learn that pornography is available on the Internet. Seriously, with a cast full of underseen stars – including  James Caan, Kevin Pollak, and the mighty Robert Forster – and an offbeat subject, there’s no end to the Boogie Nights-like potential of director George Gallo’s (Midnight Run) latest effort. Wilson is a natural for roles such as this, and anything to get him off those embarrassing cell phone ads is all right by us. The following trailer is redband, meaning it’s NSFW.

Eat, Pray, Love (August 13) – Based on the gargantuan best-selling memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert, the story centers on a newly divorced woman (Julia Roberts) who embarks on a journey around the world to find happiness and contentment. Our Take: We imagine August multiplexes including the twi-hards viewing Eclipse for the third time while their moms check out this sort-of comeback for Roberts one theatre over. Glee mastermind Ryan Murphy is likely exactly the right choice to adapt the material, while the supporting cast including Javier Bardem, James Franco and Billy Crudup means plenty of eye candy for its target demographic.

The Expendables (August 13) – A team of mercenaries is sent to a South America country on a mission to kill its ruthless dictator, even as other forces including a traitor in their midst conspire against them. Our take: Overkill is the name of the game for Sly Stallone’s latest trifecta effort, both in the plot and special effects and also in the tough-guy roundup casting. A good thing, too: pretty much everyone involved could use a career tune-up, and a group effort like this makes good sense. Too, it’s irresistable for anybody that grew up watching action movies on cable. One question, though: Was Chuck Norris busy?

The American (September 1) - A professional hitman and weapons maker (George Clooney) flees to the remote mountains of Italy before awaiting his next, final assignment. While holed up in a tiny village he befriends a priest and romances a local girl, either of whom might offer salvation. Our take: The flip side to The Expendables in so many ways, Anton Corbijn’s second feature effort looks to be a more deliberate and cerebral take on some familiar genre tropes. Clooney has our attention as usual, though much like Jolie it wouldn’t hurt him to lay off the spy and smooth criminal parts for a little while. Read our full preview here.

The Adjustment Bureau (September 17) – A rising politician (Matt Damon) begins a fledgling but powerful romance with a ballerina (Emily Blunt), even while shadowy and mysterious forces rearrange reality so as to keep them apart. Loosely based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, adapted and directed by George Nolfi (The Bourne Ultimatum.), and co-starring Anthony Mackie, John Slattery, Terrence Stamp, Daniel Dae Kim and Shohreh Aghdashloo. Our take: Damon has as much claim to the title  ”America’s Leading Man” as anybody else right now, Blunt is a rising star worth watching, and brainy, romantic science fiction is always a welcome sight. Nevertheless, if Inception disappoints this film could likewise fail to connect with audiences.

The Town (September 17) – The leader of a gang of thieves (Ben Affleck) struggles with feelings of responsibility and attraction for a bank manager (Rebecca Hall) traumatized by one of his heists. Meanwhile an FBI agent (Jon Hamm) pursues her as well, all the while closing in on the thieves. Our take: Has Affleck made a modern-day, grittier Tequila Sunrise? Damon’s former partner returns to their hometown of Boston for this character drama that opens the same day and also features a Mad Men star in a prominent role. Affleck’s earlier writing-directing effort Gone Baby Gone was a pleasant surprise, but for no good reason we’re less enthused about him directing himself. Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) also co-stars as Affleck’s henchman.

Buried (September 24) –  A civilian truck driver working in Iraq (Ryan Reynolds) is taken hostage by terrorists and buried alive with only a knife, a cell phone, and a lighter. Initially suffering from amnesia, he begins to piece together his fragmented memories as his day’s worth of air slowly runs out. Our take: This effort by Spanish director Rodrigo Cortes seems an unusual choice for Reynolds, who up until now (and the upcoming Green Lantern) has stayed largely away from heavier concepts. There’s a Hitchcockian feel even to just the basic story pitch, and Cortes has reportedly followed that muse towards including plenty of innovative camera angles and perspectives to help tighten the tension. If audiences are willing to buy the former Van Wilder in such grim surroundings the film could be a surprise hit.

- Michael Kabel

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DVD Review: Moon

One of last year’s best releases arrives on DVD and Blu-Ray today.

One of 2009′s best films and among the best sci-fi cinema of recent years, first time writer-director Duncan Jones’ near-future drama Moon is intelligent, well-crafted, and restrained, thanks to a perfect (if derivative in a well-intentioned way) production design and great performances from stars Sam Rockwell and Kevin Spacey. A small-scale film that articulates its simple ideas while managing some new twists to familiar tropes, it’s must-see viewing for anyone interested in realistic space exploration cinema, as well as anybody who enjoys an old-fashioned corkscrew plot.

Rockwell (Confessions of A Dangerous Mind) plays Sam Bell, the sole human occupant of the Sarang mining facility on the dark side of the moon. The station uses huge robotic crawlers to mine for helium-3, a rare isotope powerful enough to solve the world’s energy needs. After three years on the station Bell is weary, melancholy, and eager to return to the wife and daughter waiting for him on Earth, and kept company only by taped messages from home and by GERTY (voiced by Spacey), the station’s artificial intelligence .

Two weeks before his homecoming, Bell goes out to investigate a malfunction on one of the crawlers, leading to a collision that knocks him unconscious. When “Sam” wakes up in the station’s infirmary, he feels confused and alienated but also paranoid. Returning to the crash site, he finds himself – an exact copy of himself – still in the wreckage. Bringing the “other” Sam Bell back to the station, the two men try to discern what’s happened and whether either of them is actually genuine, a clone, or something more insidious.

The film’s story gets an energizing boost from Tony Noble’s production design, which while borrowing liberally from 1960s and 70s genre classics like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Silent Running, and Alien provides enough scruffy detail to take those classic images a step further along a realistic timeline. Sarang looks and “feels” shopworn, with dirt and scuff marks seemingly everywhere, and hints of mildew and other signs of long use always in its cracks and crevices. Yet the familiarity also grounds the film, from a viewer’s perspective, as part of a larger continuity of science fiction film not really in evidence since the early 1980′s realist heyday of Outland, Blade Runner, and 2010: the sense of outer space and whatever fragile habitats mankind eventually builds there as lived-in environments subject to the wear and tear typical of Earth. So much sci-fi casts the future as either antiseptically barren or completely dystopic, with little or no gradation between. In striking a middle ground, the sets give both Bell’s character and the story important depth and texture.

Jones, who wrote the story, keeps the film moving forward, using Rockwell’s relaxed screen presence and precise conveyance of emotion to keep the tension building. An exception to this comes about a third of the way through, when an important story development is accomplished largely thanks to some judicious editing. Some viewers might feel cheated, or feel that the film was anyway trying to cheat them a bit. Nathan Parker’s screenplay isn’t overly talky or given to monologues and spoken exposition (no doubt a tempting pitfall, given the film’s man-alone conceit), though it allows Rockwell and Spacey room to flesh out their characters in ways that distinguish them from the influences listed above. Spacey is a natural fit to play an electronic presence immediately reminiscent of the HAL 9000, though the script and his performance take GERTY’s personality in unexpected directions.

But the film rises and falls with Rockwell, who in essentially playing the same person at different points of their life is able to build two very different characters out of one role. It’s an important, but subtly given, plot device that Bell had a violent temper before arriving at Sarang. Rockwell makes one of the Sams impulsive and brash, while his doppelgänger, from a later point in time, is serene and lonesome. You never doubt you’re watching the same person, or the same actor, even as the two go very separate emotional directions. As good as he is, Spacey’s GERTY is somewhat underused, arriving at times seemingly only to nudge the plot in the right direction. His ostensible warmth and compassion for Bell’s welfare could have used a bit more explanation, too.

But at any event science fiction is at its best when it’s topical, and relevant. Since the film’s theatrical release last summer NASA has made several important steps towards lunar colonization, putting the United States again and at long last on the path towards the future presented with the story’s simple scale and subtly realized scope. An actual return to the moon is a long time coming, and it’s sometimes hard to remember that films like this one once carried the standard towards that lofty goal. Now here comes Duncan Jones to remind us. With its few flaws and earnest ambition, Moon is a sight worth seeing.

- Michael Kabel

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(Note: An earlier version of this review was originally published for the film’s theatrical release.)

Happy Holidays

Wishing you the best as we prepare for the coming new year. 

Happy holidays, everybody! We hope the coming year brings you all the wealth and happiness you want. 2009 was a rough year in a lot of ways, so here’s hoping better times are just around the corner. 

SBR is taking next week off, but we’ll return January 4 with our featured profile of – what else – 2010, the sequel to one of the most admired science fictions of all time and an underrated work in its right. Looking back at it now seems appropriate, we think. 

Before we shove off, in keeping with your year-old tradition, here are our holiday-themed rants. They’re just our opinions, but we mean them. 

1. There’s something to please everybody at the theatre right now, even if some of the stuff available seems like it’s been done a thousand times before – we’re looking at you, It’s Complicated. There’s nothing wrong with giving people a little holiday fluff with which to spend Christmas night, but it wouldn’t kill the industry to shake things up a bit, either. A naked Alec Baldwin doesn’t qualify as “fresh.” 

That must be Italian?

2. Last Christmas we wished for better movies in 2009. We also wished for world peace, and we didn’t get that either. Still, there was reason to celebrate thanks to Up In The Air, Moon, and a few others. Mostly, though, we think the year was by and large fallow for filmgoers, with too much formulaic and disingenuous junk like Year One and Couples Retreat clogging multiplexes while glitzy, faux-highbrow offerings like Nine seemed particularly transparent in their complacent excess. 

3. We said this last year, and we meant it. We mean it this year, too: behave yourself when you go to the movie theatre. Leave the cell phone in the car, don’t talk after the trailers, and show the theatre staff some courtesy. The holidays are a time you spend with family, but don’t act like you’re at home when you’re in the theatre. It’s rude, and it’s stupid, and it’s particularly crass at Christmastime. 

As good a place to start as any

4. Finally, we want to close out the year encouraging everybody to make movies better. Here’s our suggestion: rent and Netflix more classic movies. You know what we mean by classic: these are maybe the ones you’ve heard about your whole life but haven’t ever seen. Or they’re films you think you should watch but haven’t. As a new year’s resolution, commit yourself to seeing one classic film a month. Turner Classic Movies has one on almost all the time, and plenty of other movie channels – Flix, Fox Movie Classics, et cetera – regularly show films that are due and overdue for rediscovery. If you’re not sure where to start, The American Film Institute’s Top 100 films makes a great checklist. 

If enough people start watching films worth their time, if we all get smarter about cinema’s history, eventually the movie industry will have to make better films to keep up with us. Film as a whole can be so much better than it is right now, but only if we insist upon it. Thanks and again our best wishes in the new year.  

- Michael Kabel
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Review: Moon

Duncan Jones’ debut feature gets all its retro details in smart order.

How welcome, and even encouraging given this summer of disappointments, to discover Moon. Co-writer and first-time director Duncan Jones’ near-future drama is intelligent, well-crafted, and restrained, thanks to a perfect (if derivative in a well-intentioned way) production design and great performances from stars Sam Rockwell and Kevin Spacey. A small-scale film that articulates its simple ideas while managing some new twists to familiar tropes, the film manages to do what Captain Kirk, the Terminator, and Optimus Prime together could not: bring intelligent science fiction to summer movie theatres.

Rockwell (Confessions of A Dangerous Mind) plays Sam Bell, the sole human occupant of the Sarang mining facility on the dark side of the moon. The station uses huge robotic crawlers to mine for helium-3, a rare isotope powerful enough to solve the world’s energy needs. After three years on the station, Bell is weary, melancholy, and eager to return to the wife and daughter waiting for him on Earth, and kept company only by taped messages from home and by GERTY (voiced by Spacey), the station’s artificial intelligence .

Two weeks before his homecoming, Bell goes out to investigate a malfunction on one of the crawlers, leading to a collision that knocks him unconscious. When “Sam” wakes up in the station’s infirmary, he feels confused and alienated but also paranoid. Returning the crash site, he finds himself – an exact copy of himself – still in the wreckage. Bringing the “other” Sam Bell back to the station, the two men try to discern what’s happened and whether either of them is actually genuine, a clone, or something more insidious.

The film’s story gets a boost from Tony Noble’s production design, which while borrowing liberally from 1960s and 70s genre classics like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Silent Running, and Alien provides enough scruffy detail to take those classic images a step further along a realistic timeline. Sarang looks and “feels” shopworn, with dirt and scuff marks seemingly everywhere, and hints of mildew and other signs of long use always in its cracks and crevices. Yet the familiarity also grounds the film, from a viewer’s perspective, as part of a larger continuity of science fiction film not really in evidence since the early 1980′s realist heyday of Outland, Blade Runner, and 2010: the sense of outer space and whatever fragile habitats mankind eventually builds there as lived-in environments subject to the wear and tear typical of Earth. So much sci-fi casts the future as either antiseptically barren or completely dystopic, with little or no gradation in between. In striking a middle ground, the sets give both Bell’s character and the story important depth and texture.

Jones, who wrote the story, keeps the film moving forward, using Rockwell’s relaxed screen presence and precise conveyance of emotion to keep the tension building. An exception to this comes about a third of the way through, when an important story development is accomplished largely thanks to some judicious editing. Some viewers might feel cheated, or feel that the film was anyway trying to cheat them a bit. Nathan Parker’s screenplay isn’t overly talky or given to monologues and spoken exposition (no doubt a tempting pitfall, given the film’s man-alone conceit), though it allows Rockwell and Spacey room to flesh out their characters in ways that distinguish them from the influences listed above. Spacey is a natural fit to play an electronic presence immediately reminiscent of the HAL 9000, though the script and his performance take GERTY’s personality in unexpected directions.

But the film rises and falls with Rockwell, who in essentially playing the same person at different points of their life is able to build two very different characters out of one role. It’s an important, but subtly given, plot device that Bell had a violent temper before arriving at Sarang. Rockwell makes one of the Sam’s impulsive and brash, while his doppelganger, from a later point in time, is serene and lonesome. You never doubt you’re watching the same person, or the same actor, even as the two go very separate emotional directions. As good as he is, Spacey’s GERTY is somewhat underused, arriving at times seemingly only to nudge the plot in the right direction. His ostensible warmth and compassion for Bell’s welfare could possibly have used  a bit more explanation, too.

The nation sort-of took notice of the Apollo 11 moon mission’s 40th anniversary last week, even as NASA’s plans to return to the moon begin to percolate in the public consciousness. Amid such news, the film almost seems simultaneously like a coming attraction and a souvenir, prescient and old-fashioned at the same time. With its few flaws and earnest ambition, it’s a lovely reminder of what science fiction can be about. As one blockbuster after another falls flat, even given their diminished critical expectations, Moon is a welcome sight.

- Michael Kabel

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Miscellaneous Debris, May 2009 Edition

Our monthly miscellany of news we like to talk about.

Happy Memorial Day! The weather’s far too nice here to sit in a move theatre, so we’ll likely be heading to the theatres only to check out Terminator: Salvation, and then most likely a late show. (We don’t have to get up.)

With the summer movie season already well under way and the networks presenting their upfronts, there’s a lot going on worth talking about. Especially for television, with at least one network debuting a record number of shows in the fall, the news is thick and deep. The following list only represents some of the news items popping up around the Intertube this week, so we’re sure there’s plenty more to report. Still, this stuff caught our eye, and anyway you’ll have more fun getting outside and enjoying the fresh air and sunshine anyway. The Internet in all its time-wasting glory will be here when you get back.

Coming soon to theatres?

1. Steven Spielberg announced plans this week to produce a biopic based on the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. Some King family members are already up in arms about the deal, saying they weren’t consulted on the negotiations. In the meantime, we’ll also continue waiting for Spielberg’s long-awaited bio of Abraham Lincoln, starring Liam Neeson in the role of the Great Emancipator. Rumors of that film have circled since Dreamworks got the rights back in 2001. Neeson, having pulled off the sleeper hit of the year with Taken, says he’s still eager to get into the role.

2. On a completely different subject, we have to repeat how much we’re looking forward to Moon, July’s indie sci-fi effort about an astronaut miner (Sam Rockwell) facing replacement just as his long, lonely tour on the lunar surface draws to a close. There’s never a bad time for smart science fiction, especially those rooted in near-future concepts and especially character-driven performances like this one. (We can’t help but think of Stanislaw Lem’s novel Peace On Earth every time we watch the trailer.) At any rate, we’re hoping the small-scale effort, directed by newcomer Duncan Jones, isn’t completely overshadowed online by the already-percolating hype surrounding New Moon, the sequel to Twilight, set for release this November. We previewed Moon last month, but here’s the trailer once again.

Raise the Green Lantern: Trucco

3. Good news and no-news (which is still good news, according to an old saying) for fans of comic book movies. This week reports swirled that Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige and Thor director Kenneth Branagh had selected Chris Hemsworth (Star Trek) to play the titular Norse god of thunder. The next day reports circulated that British actor Tom Hiddleston (Wallander) will play his villainous half-brother Loki. Over on the DC Comics side of things, there’s still no word on casting for the Green Lantern movie, despite filming scheduled to begin in September. As a suggestion to help speed things along, we suggest Michael Trucco (Battlestar Galactica) to play Green Lantern Hal Jordan. He’s a good actor and he looks the part, for whatever such virtues factor into how those decisions are made.

4. One of the (count ‘em) ten new shows announced by ABC for their 2009-10 season this week, Flash Forward has Next Big Thing written all over its expensive-looking trailer. Based on a novel by Canadian author Robert J. Sawyer and developed for television by screenwriters David Goyer (Batman Begins) and Brannon Braga (Star Trek: Enterprise), the network hopes the ensemble drama will serve as a “companion” series – and eventual successor, no doubt – to Lost,which begins its final season starting next January. Flash Forward depicts the aftermath of a mysterious event that causes the world’s population to black out for two minutes and 17 seconds, during which everyone gets a glimpse of their future. The ensemble cast includes Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare In Love), Courtney B. Vance (Law & Order: Criminal Intent), Sonya Walger (Lost), John Cho (Star Trek), and Peyton List (Mad Men).

5. Since we’ve championed the film at least once before for release on DVD and/or Blu-Ray, we’re very excited to announce the Peter Yates’ 1973 crime classic The Friends of Eddie Coyle saw its home video premiere this week – as a Criterion Edition, no less. Among the cool extra features is a reprint of Rolling Stone magazine’s profile of star Robert Mitchum, from the time of the film’s shooting. Apparently Mitchum, already a legendary Hollywood rebel, researched his role as a desperate low-level gunrunner by hanging out with Boston ganglord Whitey Bulger, the inspiration for Jack Nicholson’s character in The Departed thirty-three years later.

Stone Age tools: Black, Cera

6. Have you seen the latest ads for the Judd Apatow-produced, Harold Ramis-directed Year One? So much of this film demonstrates so much of what annoys us most about modern American cinema. A full decade after his distracting turn in the otherwise charming High Fidelity, Jack Black is still doing the same cocky buffoon shtick he’s done in virtually every role since. Likewise co-star Cera, bringing George-Michael Bluth’s amiable timidity to yet another paycheck. Because we know Ramis co-starred in Stripes that same year, we know he’s old enough to remember History of The World Part I and Caveman, both 1981 efforts that covered the exact same lowbrow ground. Here’s hoping that Ramis’ upcoming Ghostbusters 3 will offer better comedy. Failing that, his remake of Meatballs. Yes, Hollywood is remaking Meatballs. You’ve been warned.

7. It’s been a while since we’ve heard from the Skeet Ulrich contingent of our readership, so as a shout to them we want to mention Armored, the September release directed by Nimrod Antal (Vacancy) about a group of armored truck drivers attempting to steal $42 million from one of their own vehicles. Columbus Short (Cadillac Records) leads a cast full of man’s men, including Ulrich as well as Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix), Jean Reno (The Professional), Matt Dillon (The Outsiders) and Fred Ward (Tremors). Nothing closes out summer like a good, gritty neo-noir, and this one, with hints of both Criss Cross and Reservior Dogs, looks to fill that position this year.  A second film with an almost-identical concept is also currently in production, this one starring Eric Bana (Munich) and directed by F. Gary Gray (The Italian Job).

8. Finally, we were saddened this week to learn of the passing of Wayne Allwine, who supplied the voice of Mickey Mouse for thirty two years, from complications of diabetes. He was 62. A lifelong Disney employee, Allwine was only the third voice actor, after Walt Disney and his mentor Jimmy MacDonald, to portray the mouse in movies, television shows, and at the various Disney theme parks. A native of the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale, Allwine joined the Disney corporation in 1966, starting in the company mail room before working his way up to sound editing such films as Splash and Three Men And A Baby.  His widow, Russi Taylor, has provided the voice of Mickey’s sweetheart Minnie Mouse since 1986.

We’ll return next Wednesday with a review of Terminator: Salvation. Have a great holiday weekend and be careful on the roads.

- Michael Kabel
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Preview: Moon

Sam Rockwell in an old-school science fiction thriller.  

Evocative of the more subdued and character-driven science fiction classics of the 1970s such as Silent Running and Solaris as well as 2001: A Space Odyssey, the new film Moon offers another entry into the present decade’s slow resurgence of intelligent sci-fi, seen in films including Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Primer, and 2046. It’s also got Sam Rockwell, one of our favorite actors, and includes Kevin Spacey in possibly the part he was born to play.

Co-written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Duncan Jones, the story joins lunar prospector Sam Bell (Rockwell) at the end of his three-year hitch as the sole human occupant of Sarang, a remote mining station on the dark side of the moon’s surface. The largely automated station refines the lunar soil looking for Helium 3, an isotope used to end the world’s desperate energy crisis. Kept company by GERTY, the on-station artificial intelligence (voiced by Spacey), Bell has used the time wisely, working on his violent temper and getting his mind and spirit in shape for the early retirement with his family that awaits him on Earth.

With two weeks left on his tour, an accident sends Bell on an excursion to one of the camp’s roving processing stations. There he discovers a fully-grown copy of himself lying unconscious in a hatchway. Alone and feeling more isolated than ever, he must ask then himself if the being is real, calling into question his own sanity but also his very existence. 

Would you believe, they put Sam on the moon?

At first glance Jones’s film has done everything right to make a retro-cool science fiction thriller, most notably using a plastic-sleek design aesthetic both reminiscent of 2001 and about a thousand artist’s depictions of life in space from the last 50 years. Even the poster pays homage to the 70s era, its layout bringing to mind 1971′s The Andromeda Strain. The use of Helium 3 as a major plot point is also a timely and intelligent decision. That rare gas has been named by many futurists as the key to effective fusion power, and Russian and Chinese space experts have already called for exploring the moon for its presence. So for fans looking for something besides Transformers exploding  or something brainier than 2012,  Roland Emmerich’s latest apocalyptic hoo-ha, the film’s probably a can’t-miss.

Our skepticism comes from a couple of times we’ve been let down by such intriguing sci-fi spectacles before – and those from more accomplished directors. Brian De Palma’s 2000 clunker Mission To Mars shared Moon‘s attention to near-future space exploration realism but was crippled by a conclusion that made no damn sense given its setup. More recently, Danny Boyle’s Sunshine looked both realistic but imaginative at the same time. It too fell apart in the third act, once some kind of climax-focused tension became necessary. 

But performance counts, too. Rockwell is an intriguing choice to play an isolated astronaut, with his blank slate face that easily disappears into emotional complexity at a moment’s notice. And the idea of Spacey’s dry ice-on-tile voice animating a complex robot is a natural. (If 2001 were made today, who better to voice HAL?) The two of them together could probably wage a snark-off battle for the ages, but they’re also quite capable of subdued work that puts character first. Acting isn’t always the difference between good science fiction and bad, but it also never hurts.

Finally, there’s also something to be said for timing. Moon opens in limited American release June 12, just a little less than six weeks before the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing.

- Michael Kabel
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Miscellaneous Debris, January Edition

Our irregular discussion of matters of passing interest.

So how’s your 2009 going so far? Over the holidays we got to see two of the big holiday releases, and both were letdowns. Of the two, Benjamin Button was the bigger disappointment, if only because the stakes there were much higher; Valkyrie was so close to being good we were cheering for the film to tighten itself up halfway through. We’re going next week to see Revolutionary Road, a use of time we’re pretty sure will count as an act of penance.

January is the traditional dumping ground for films whose studios have very little confidence in their success. Time was, Thanksgiving was the season for such likely bombs, a practice that led to films expected to fail getting the nickname “turkeys.” This week, theatregoers are subjected to Bride Wars and The Unborn, two rigidly formulaic genre flicks perhaps distinguished most clearly by their appearance in a theatre at all instead of heading down the direct-to-DVD chute.  January is also if nothing else a time to catch up on the December prestige releases trickling into wider release – Gran Turino and The Reader both open  nationwide tomorrow.

The following is stuff we thought worth mentioning but not worth blogging about for a whole entry. All opinons and snark are our own.

1. Next week’s big release: Paul Blart: Mall Cop, a “comedy” starring the fat guy from The King of Queens. Did Larry the Cable Guy pass on this project? Previews boast that it’s from Happy Madison, which means it’s for sure a script even Adam Sandler passed on (probably Rob Schneider wanted it though.) If God forbid there’s a sequel, we bet anything it’s set in the Mall of America.

2. The Dark Knight is finally getting some recognition from the various awards-givers. The Director’s Guild of America is nominating Christopher Nolan, along with more celebrated directors David Fincher, Ron Howard, Gus Van Sant and Danny Boyle. The film, and Nolan, undeniably deserve the recognition. Besides raising the bar for a genre that’s become one of the most prevalant and profitable of the decade, Nolan’s masterpiece includes Heath Ledger’s already-legendary turn as the Joker as well as the best work of Christian Bale and Aaron Eckhart’s considerable careers. It’s not the kind of film that usually garners awards, but given the apathy greeting Oscar-bait flicks like Benjamin Button and Changeling maybe it’s time to open the awards to other kinds of films.

3. Speaking of superhero movies, rumors are circulating that Sam Rockwell and this year’s comeback kid Mickey Rourke are in talks to play the heavies in Iron Man 2. According to Reuters News Service, if talks go as planned Rourke would play the superpowered villain Whiplash, though Variety says he’ll appear as The Crimson Dynamo, who in the books was the Soviet Union’s answer to Iron Man. Rockwell would appear as Stark Industries rival billionaire Justin Hammer. As reported earlier, Don Cheadle will replace Terrence Howard as Jim Rhodes, though Robert Downey, Jr. is confirmed and Gwyneth Paltrow reported to return to their roles as Tony Stark and Pepper Pots, respectively.

4.  From the Snowball’s Chance In Hell Department: Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt and chief Girls Gone Wild cretin Joe Francis plan to petition Congress for a $5 billion bailout. That’s right, the porn industry wants the government to give them money, saying that it’s only fair given the assistance already sent to banks and to the Big 3 automakers. Whatever, we imagine the hearings will go something like this: CONGRESS: We’re not sure why we should give you any money. PORN INDUSTRY: There must be something we can do to persuade you. We’d do anything. (takes off shirt) Anything. CUE MUSIC: Wonk, chicka chicka wonk wonk… Actually, we think Flynt deserves some kind of recognition for producing Who’s Nailin’ Palin?

5. Is it just us, or has The Office turned into a mean-spirited, slow-moving snore this season? Jim and Pam are treading water following their slapdash engagement, Dwight is an unmitigated asshole (instead of a mitigated asshole, like before) and supporting characters like Creed and Stanley are all but absent from the storylines. This year’s Christmas episode, in which Michael tried in vain to get Meredith into a detox center while Angela provoked Phyllis into revealing her adulterous affair to the whole staff, was about as funny as smog. And while it’s possible writer Paul Leiberstein enjoys bashing his own sad-sack character Toby, the joke itself is getting pretty old.

6. Marley & Me, a film in which two fading celebrities are bullied by their asshole dog, has grossed $106 million in just two weeks. What the hell, America? What the hell.

7. The Christian Science Monitor ran an intriguing article a couple of weeks ago about the resurgent popularity of film noir, and how even the genre’s fans are hard-pressed to define its forms and criteria. The cause for its rediscovery by modern audiences isn’t that difficult to theorize: film noir enjoyed its Golden Age in the late 1940s, a time when America was both tired of war and deeply skeptical about its place in the future of the world. In other words, a time exactly like right now. As a reminder to Hollywood, two of Jame Ellroy’s L.A. Quartet novels have yet to get adapted to film, and no one would mind if The Black Dahlia got a do-over.

8. ABC brings its adaptation of the cult British sci-fi series Life On Mars back to the schedule on January 28, giving it the berth after the network’s “That’s not over yet?” former hit Lost. During its six-episode stretch last year, Life On Mars got better by leaps and bounds with each episode, so if you’re looking to get in on the ground floor of something here’s your chance. Oz and Homicide: Life On The Street fans take note: Lee Tergesen and Dean Winters both carry important recurring roles on the series.

9. An era in 00′s television ends next week with William Petersen’s departure from CBS ratings behemoth CSI:  From his earliest work in gritty 80s neo-noirs like Manhunter and To Live And Die In L.A., Petersen has always been a superb craftsman actor who’s inhabited dozens of characters with perfect modulation and poise without showing off for the camera. You’ve probably never seen him in films such as Kiss The Sky, Gunshy, or The Rat Pack, so with his exit from weekly television this is a good time to look up those worthwhile efforts. (His Jack Kennedy in The Rat Pack is so authentic you’ll get chills.)

10. Not that this should do anything for you – we hope it doesn’t, but do your own thing – last year’s clunkers Righteous Kill, Bangkok Dangerous, Pineapple Express, and Babylon A.D. all arrived on DVD this week. Combined with two weeks of reruns, January is the scrap heap even in home entertainment.

We’ll be back next week with some honest-to-Jeebus film reviews. Have a good weekend.
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