Moon
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: June 12, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
3
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike Scott
More than anything this is an intelligent film, a satisfying bit of old-school sci-fi suspense. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
Moon doesn't belabor anything, really, so confidently measured and philosophically nuanced it all plays out (aided by a striking, under-the-skin original score by Clint Mansell). Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Moon is a potent provocation that relies on ideas instead of computer tricks to stir up excitement. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Moon is a superior example of that threatened genre, hard science-fiction, which is often about the interface between humans and alien intelligence of one kind of or other, including digital. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
After the chaos of "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," it's refreshing to encounter a science fiction film that respects the intelligence and attention span of an adult. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
Moon is enjoyable as much for its small scale and solid execution as for its crazy twists and creeping existential dread. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Moon doesn't arrive with a train of ballyhoo, but its quiet charms easily drowns out the clatter of bigger, dumber pictures. Read full review
80
Film ThreatWhitney Borup
Moon is one of those rare gems of the sci-fi genre that takes its acting as seriously as it treats its special effects. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDuane Byrge
Under Duncan Jones' kinetic direction, Moon also shines on the production front: Cinematographer Gary Shaw's shaded shots intensify the drama, and Clint Mansell's music heightens the psycho-scape. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
This eerie drama harks back to sci-fi movies of the late 60s and early 70s that explored inner as well as outer space (2001, Solaris, and particularly Silent Running). Read full review
80
EmpireSimon Crook
They do make ’em like they used to -- a fresh blast of old-school sci-fi, bursting with ideas and a stellar turn from Rockwell. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Moon, a superb first feature directed by Duncan Jones (David Bowie's son) and starring an impressive Sam Rockwell, is an intelligent, evocative and deceptively low-key sci-fi adventure. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineJosh Ralske
Moon is a small-scale film, but, thanks in no small part to Rockwell, its mix of thematic grandeur and human drama makes it a worthy successor to those 1970s science fiction films that inspired it. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Moon is a deceptively simple study of alienation, paranoia, and loneliness. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Stephen Cole
Watching Moon is kind of like seeing a booster rocket thrust seventies' sci-fi films deeper into orbit. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Most contemporary sci-fi movies come on with all CGI-guns blazing, trying to blow the roof off the theater. Moon settles for trying to blow your mind instead. Read full review
70
VarietyDennis Harvey
Despite its handsome look and good thesping workout for Sam Rockwell, the story stretches a bit thin over feature length. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
The film's ideas are interesting, but don't feel entirely worked out, and Mr. Rockwell's intriguingly strange performance (or performances) is left suspended, without the context that would give Sam's plight its full emotional and philosophical impact. The smallness of this movie is decidedly a virtue, but also, in the end, something of a limitation. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
I won't pretend to understand the movie's deep meaning--if it has one--but I can say three things for sure: Mr. Rockwell gives a brilliant performance, the physical production is impressive and Moon made me think. Four things: It made me smile. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The double role suits Rockwell perfectly -- in fact, it suits him a little too well. Read full review
65
NPRBob Mondello
The actor proves capable of embodying all sorts of contradictory impulses as his character becomes tragically self-aware. But he can't overcome a plot that goes slack at precisely the moment it should be soaring, or a corporate-villainy premise that practically begs not to be looked at too closely. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle Smith
Freaked-out funky weirdness starts to happen all around him (Rockwell). Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Moon might be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for fans of Sam Rockwell. Will there ever be more of him in one movie than there is here? Read full review
63
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Kevin Spacey delivers his least-mannered, most effective big-screen performance in years as the voice of the nearly omniscient computer-robot, GERTY, whose silky ambiguity resembles HAL's in Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey." Read full review
50
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Impressively pulled together on a modest budget, Moon has a strong lead and a valid philosophical premise but, despite Bell's fissured psyche, the drama is inert. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesBetsy Sharkey
Try as they might, the filmmakers never hit the outer reaches of imagination that both Kubrick and Bowie did. Which is not to say the film completely implodes into a black hole either. Read full review
50
Washington PostDan Zak
Storywise, Moon fails to live up to the promise of its premise. There's plenty of atmosphere, but little gravity. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Moon is boring. Agonizingly, deadeningly, coma-inducingly, they-could-bury-you-alive-accidentally boring. Read full review
16
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
It just may be the most boring movie ever made – period. Read full review
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