SXSW 2009: Moon and New World Order

This film has two things going for it before it even begins. 1) Its star, Sam Rockwell, is a talented, sometimes underrated, actor, and 2) it's a sci-fi flick, full of cool shots of moon rovers with the big, blue earth in the background, talking computers, life endangerment and extraterrestrial mysteries.

Sometime in the future, Sam Bell (Rockwell) is just finishing up a three-year contract for a mining operation on the moon. Alone. Or so it seems. After recovering from an injury, the result of an apparent hallucination, Sam encounters another man on the moon: himself. Is one of them an hallucination? A clone? Is this Hal-esque computer (called Gertie here with voice work by Kevin Spacey) a good guy or an enemy? And why can't Sam have a live conversation with his wife on Earth? At first it seems the screenwriters have badly stretched credibility. But hanging with the story does eventually pay off. The interaction between the two Sams is what makes this film so engaging. Rockwell pulls it off with aplomb. Do you call it "chemistry" between actors when only one person is doing the acting?

Throughout this intriguing documentary one can't help but think of Mel Gibson's character Jerry Fletcher in 1997's Conspiracy Theory. Jerry appears to be a complete lunatic until you find out that "they" made him that way. Although Jerry was fictional, New World Order  is filled with Jerry-type people. "They" in New World Order ranges from the U.S. government to clandestine organizations such as the Bilderberg group that are supposedly scheming to dominate the world, even enslaving it. Although much of what is said is pretty far-fetched (the World Trade Center was brought down by government planted bombs, not airplanes with terrorists), there are enough intelligent-sounding arguments to make even the biggest cynic stop and think. The film's central character, radio host Alex Jones, who has become the conspira-theorists talking piece, is fascinating to watch as he dramatically leads protests and performs interviews on what he feels is America's descent into a globalized, one world government. Filmmakers Luke Meyer and Andrew Neel had already proven themselves as intelligent and entertaining documentarians with 2006's enjoyable Darkon.