Erik Moe: Critic at Large

Moon = fine

My recollection of the trailer for Duncan Jones’ Moon deceptively had me believing that the film would be a long, drawn out contemplative work focusing on boredom and isolation in a mining shack on the Moon. I am a big fan of films about boredom. Instead, it turned into a tight little corporate dystopia flick. On the moon. Sam Rockwell was great. The film was enjoyable. Not enjoyable enough that I’d call it “recommended.”

Lesser films seen this week:

• Vision = not recommended. Saw this as part of the Goethe Institute’s “Film | Neu” German language festival. Hopefully there were better films in the series. This story about a group of 11th Century nuns earning a tiny degree of liberation under the leadership of a charismatic absinthe-addict certainly offers an unusual historical setting. Unfortunately, the narrative is completely conventional.
• Up = fine. Watched via Netflix because it figured prominently in respectable end-of-year lists. As a part-time curmudgeon who likes to travel, I identified with Carl. I just didn’t find this particular flying house adventure all that entertaining.

P.S. Viewing Habit is the first in a series of series I think maybe I can possibly post to this space regularly. “Habit” does not imply that each post will involve nuns. I will continue to rate films on my five point scale as either highly recommended, recommended, fine, not recommended, or highly not recommended.

Tags: viewing habit