It’s a wonderful film, of course. Bowie’s lad done good; it can’t be easy being the offspring of a genius, and Duncan Jones did well to eschew music, where expectations would have been impossible, in favour of another art form. He chose directing and, whatever happens in his career from now on (his career since 2009 seems to have been variable), he has this splendid achievement to his name.
Sam Rockwell is also superb and, indeed, has to be; he’s the only actor to have more than a cameo here, amusing and disorienting though it is to see Matt Berry as his boss. But the other character is the ship computer, Gerry, whom I shall try not to compare to HAL- oops- and who is creepily voiced by a pre-scandal Kevin Spacey. Gerty is creepy; not least because of those smileys.
These are all just surface things, though; what makes this film sing is its ideas and themes, of corporate ethics in a world where private corporations mine Helium-3 from the Lunar surface, yes, but mainly about- how shall I put it- themes of self and consciousness. This is serious science fiction with a twist, a Tharg’s Future Shock, if you will, or an rxtended episode of Black Mirror. And it’s wonderful.
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