"Moon" and "Bruno"

I tried to do three reviews last night but problems with the intertubes meant I could only complete "Public Enemies." So I'm back with looks at Sam Rockwell in "Moon" and Sacha Baron Cohen's latest assault on good taste and human decency (but hey, it's funny).

Moon - "Bowie's is in space." - Flight of the Conchords
Well Bowie's not, but his son is. First time director Duncan Jones does something wonderful with "Moon." This isn't to say it's a spectacular film. It's good but what's truly wonderful about it is that it is a showcase for one of the most talented actors working today, Sam Rockwell. You've seen him in an array of films. In movies as different as "Galaxy Quest" and "The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford," Rockwell has shined brightly.
Here, Rockwell is Sam Bell, a man in the final few weeks of his three year mission on an isolated moon base (is there any other kind?). Amazingly with no one to talk to but a robotic smiley face named GERTY (who sounds an awful lot like Kevin Spacey), Bell hasn't completely lost his mind. He is getting there though. The thought of seeing his wife and daughter again is keeping him going, but when he goes out for a routine drive around the surface, he ends up buried in a pile of rubble. Not knowing how much time has passed, Sam awakes back on the base with GERTY watching over him. "How long have I been out?" Sam asks. "Not long," replies GERTY, but what does that mean?
To say what happens next would be to enter Spoilertown so I'll just say that we get to see a whole lot of Sam Rockwell talking to himself the rest of the way. As a fan of great acting I had absolutely no problem with this. Rockwell is, as always, not just brilliant, he's surprising. The way Bell reacts to the situation didn't strike me as how I might expect a person to handle it. He seems strangely unfazed by it as though he were almost expecting it. Rockwell makes us believe it though and Jones trusts him enough to let him go.
The story and screenplay by Jones and first timer Nathan Parker is definitely derivative at times but as a character study of Bell it's well thought and the character of GERTY is an inventive twist on the HAL 9000.
"Moon" is a movie that will definitely require a second viewing to solidify some things but Rockwell's performance is so outstanding (and it goes by very quickly) that I look forward to giving it another look. It's in limited release but check this one out if you get the chance. 8/10.

Bruno - In 2006, Sacha Baron Cohen gave us "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" (I love saying the full title). It was a film that not only pushed the envelope, it tore the envelope into tiny pieces. With "Bruno" he's given us a film that pours gasoline on those pieces and sets them on fire before urinating on them. If the end of that sentence grossed you out then stay far away from this one.
Bruno (Cohen) is an Austrian fashion reporter with dreams of becoming "uber-famous." Like "Borat," "Bruno" is a combination of staged bits and real world interactions between Cohen's character and his unsuspecting victims. The first of his treks into reality (if you can call a European fashion show reality) comes when he disrupts a star studded fashion event with an all Velcro suit that comes close to truly bringing down the house. Banned from the major European shows, Bruno must come to America. With his loyal assistant Lutz (Gustaf Hammarsten) by his side, Bruno goes to Hollywood, believing the best way to become "uber-famous" is to become an actor. When that fails he doesn't become discouraged. He decides that interviewing the beautiful people in Hollywood will be the key to success. Unfortunately they're saying no. "Wilhelm Schmidt? Bradolf Pittler?" No.
When "Borat" came along we'd never really seen anything like it. It was the most inspired kind of comic lunacy imaginable. Cohen gave himself a lot to live up to and it would be impossible to replicate the freshness of "Borat." What "Bruno" lacks in its ability to surprise, it tries to make up for by going to greater lengths of insanity. It's not always successful comically, but it is more often than not, and no one can question Cohen's fearlessness. No one, and I mean NO one else would travel to the Middle East (or "ze Middle Earth" as Bruno calls it) to prank Israeli and Palestian officials or tell a terrorist (suspected anyway), "Your king Osama looks like a kind of dirty wizard or homeless Santa Claus." With "Borat" I often thought, "He's lucky he didn't get his ass kicked." With "Bruno" I thought, "He's lucky he didn't get murdered."
The real difference in feel between this film and "Borat" is that in "Bruno" there are times when Cohen doesn't seem to want the laugh, even the shocked laugh. He just wants us to be shocked and horrified by people at their absolute worst. It's difficult to laugh when a woman is seriously agreeing to having her baby undergo liposuction to get chosen for a photo shoot.
Once again, Sacha Baron Cohen has turned the mirror on society and the results are often less than flattering. "Borat" was a funnier movie but "Bruno" (which is still very funny) is the more shocking. That may not be what we wanted as an audience but I think that's what Cohen was going for. On those terms it's most definitely a success. 7.5/10.