Take a trip to the "Moon" this week

This excellent little science fiction film is opening in three Los Angeles-area theatres this weekend: the Laemmle Town Center 5 in Encino, the ArcLight Hollywood in Hollywood, and the AMC Century City 15 in Century City.

The story follows astronaut Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) who has been working alone on the moon for three years, accompanied only by a computer (voiced by Kevin Spacey, giving HAL 9000’s Douglas Rain a run for his money). An intriguing plot twist brings Sam face to face with literally the last person he expected to meet on the Moon, resulting in some SOLARIS-style soul-searching.

MOON – which was written an directed by Duncan Jones – doesn’t have a big advertising budget behind it, nor a lot of slam-bang action a la the new STAR TREK feature, but it is probably the best piece of science fiction you will see this year.