Moon

Director: Duncan Jones
2009
RT score: 90%
My rating: 10/10

About 10 years ago I remember a stir being created around a film named Memento and a director named Christopher Nolan. The film felt new and fresh and everyone I talked to asked 'have you seen Memento yet?' And from that moment on every Christopher Nolan film has felt like a must see.
That brings me to Duncan Jones. For reason I can't fully comprehend, Moon did not have that same effect and even after Source Code was a mild hit, I am still not sure Duncan Jones has the name recognition he deserves.
The two driving forces behind Moon are Jones and Sam Rockwell. Jones delivers the vision and Rockwell drives it home. When we first meet Rockwell he is seen as a contracted employee of a fictional company who has revolutionized energy consumption by harvesting energy from the moon. He is nearing the end of a three year contract and the emotional and psychological damage caused by only having a robot Kevin Spacey to interact with is apparent, but not over done. While attempting to perform work on one of the harvesters Rockwell has an accident and we suddenly we meet a new Rockwell. This one is fresher, uninjured and does not have the emotional baggage of the previous Rockwell.
The two eventually cross paths and one of the brilliant things Jones does is he wastes no time having the two discuss the possibility of one of them being a clone. The two share many combative scenes as they try and understand whats happening to them. How this performance didn't net Rockwell an oscar nomination is a testament to how out of touch the academy still is.
Perhaps the films greatest achievement is that you still feel a huge emotional gulp when we reach the final reveal despite the fact that Jones has allowed the characters to discuss the fact that they may be clones. It is a testament to Jones as a story teller that we still care in this moment and watching it again I even forget how prevalent the clone talk was since the reveal was powerful enough to stay with me since first seeing this in theaters. I recently watched both Jones films with my wife, the final test for just how good a director is, and like Memento many years ago, it didn't matter that this isn't the type of film she goes for. All the mattered is the fact that the story is told with incredible conviction, it is wonderfully acted and when you finally get to the end you feel like it actually meant something. Which is precisely why Duncan Jones is on the must watch list for me now, much like Nolan was after Memento.