Another Earth and Moon Movie Reviews

As I continue on my quest of movie awesomeness, I have encountered two space movies yet again. What's different about these two is they don't deal with the impending doom of the Earth for once. They are more of the sit back and think type of movie. So I now bring you, Another Earth and Moon.

Another Earth (2011)

This movie is about as independent as you can get and manages to create a beautiful movie despite the low budget. I only heard of this movie through a compilation trailer and was immediately interested.

The story follows a young college student named Rhoda (Brit Marling, who also wrote the movie), as she crosses paths with a famous music composer in a tragic way all while the Earth realizes they aren't alone in the Solar System. Coming into plain site, a "twin" Earth is discovered and has come into the plain of site.

It would really be a shame to spoil any of the plot to this movie because the intersecting storyline is incredible and so important to the film (so really pay attention when you watch.) What I will say is at some point contact is made between the Earth's, and they realize just how similar both of them are.

Rhoda was studying astronomy in college before her unfortunate accident happened which ultimately ended her education. However, she won a contest held by NASA to visit "Earth 2."

Here's where the movie gets confusing in a good way. The ending is simply incredible, and nothing really happens. It's left up to the viewer to decide if what they just saw happened, or not. I've spent much time on message boards trying to interpret the ending, and no one answer seems right.

Another Earth is easily one of my favorite films on this list so far, and writer/actress, Brit Marling has a bright future in front of her.



IMDB - 7/10
TheSIBandGuy - 4.7/5


Moon (2009)

Moon is a similar movie to Another Earth, in it's more of something to get you to think besides the obvious space connection. In this movie, Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell), is a scientist who is living on the Moon for three years in order to harvest Helium-3 and send it back to Earth as a fuel source. Sam is alone on this mission and only communicates with his robot/computer companion, GERTY (Kevin Spacey). Unable to directly communicate with Earth, GERTY and Sam form a close relationship although one of them isn't real...maybe...

The acting by Sam Rockwell is great. He is pretty much the only person ever on screen, and does a convincing job of someone who has clearly been isolated for too long. Spacey's character is just a computer, so it is only his voice, but even his tone is perfect. He reminds me of the computer HAL from Space Odyssey 2001.

This movie is filed with a couple of great plot twists. It's also important to note that it takes place in the future so some of these twists involve thinking about where we would have come as a civilization.

Moon offers a compelling look at loneliness, fear, and mistrust as Sam learns everything is not what it really seems to be.

You must check this movie out for the sheer brilliance of the acting and simple premise.



IMDB - 8/10
TheSIBandGuy - 4/5

Both of these movies were among the favorites I've watched. They are grouped together for having to do with space, but also not being about the end of the world. Instead they focus on advancing the Earth. These films were very much under the radar and did not boast huge budgets, but were very effective in their stoytelling.