Sam Rockwell Gives a Must-See Performance in This Indie Sci-Fi

Duncan Jones made Moon, his 2009 directorial debut, for one actor and one actor only: Sam Rockwell. Granted, Paddy Considine nearly took the role instead due to the production schedule's fast pace. But Jones created Moon solely because of his desire to work with Rockwell. The film's concept sprung from a conversation between director and star, and its protagonist bears the name Sam Bell (a nice bit of self-referentiality). Conceivably, someone else — the spectacular Considine, for instance — could've delivered a superb performance off a script as magnificent as Moon's, which counts as catnip for character actors. Half an hour with Rockwell makes it impossible to imagine another in his stead, and the whole produces a turn rather impossible to forget. A character actor at heart, Rockwell wouldn't be nominated for or win an Academy Award until 2017 (for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, another actor's catnip situation). His role in Moon is a quintessential example of "this deserved an Oscar," with Moon's oversight possibly due to the Academy's genre recognition problem. Regardless, we're several years out from Three Billboards, living in a world where Rockwell's making comedy mincemeat out of Argylle's unconventional action scenes. Now more than ever, one of his finest performances deserves widespread recognition.