Moon

A film so spare that it essentially features only one actor, Moon is a mesmerizing study in sci-fi minimalism. Skillfully envisioned by British director Duncan Jones in his full-length debut, the movie, set on a lunar base in an unspecified future, focuses on Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell), the sole worker overseeing the automated extraction of helium-3, a natural resource shipped back to an energy-strapped Earth. With only the HAL-like robot GERTY (voiced with unshakable calm by Kevin Spacey) to keep him company, Sam is nearing the end of his three years in isolation and beginning to lose it--and that's before he encounters an injured person out on the moon's surface, one who looks exactly like himself. As Sam and his mysterious doppelganger assess and confront each other, Rockwell has a field day portraying both characters, revealing a range of emotion that few actors of his generation can come close to pulling off. Working with an atmospheric and ominous score by Clint Mansell, Jones channels contemplative sci-fi classics, most notably 2001: A Space Odyssey and the original Solaris, while also letting in a bit of disconnected "Major Tom" lineage via his father, David Bowie. Moon not only shows the erstwhile Zowie Bowie escaping the considerable shadow of his dad, it marks the arrival of a significant filmmaker.