Moon

Conceived and directed by Duncan Jones, Moon is set within the confines of an energy-harvesting lunar space station run nearly single-grasper-handedly by an emoticon-faced, HAL 9000-like ceiling-mounted robot named GERTY (splendidly voiced by Kevin Spacey). Minor, monkey-could-do-it maintenance is performed by a single measly human. That lone human, played with verve and subtle complexity by Sam Rockwell (Choke, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind), is named Sam and, with less than a month left in his three-year contract, Sam is going out of his damn gourd with boredom. And then, one lunar night, on a routine patrol, Sam has a close encounter with himself—not in the metaphorical sense—and an already loony situation gets loonier still. To say more would force open too early a terrifically wound plot that, as it unfurls, not only thrills but also asks audiences to tussle with timely questions, from the bioethical to the existential, from free will to free markets, from the solicitude we feel for our fellow man, to the solitude we feel without him. Pageant Theatre. Rated R.