We haven't had a lot of brainy science fiction at the movies recently. Most science fiction has moved away from the philosophizing headspace to the easy accessibility and fun of the space opera / adventure variety, the Star Wars school if you will. There have been a few attempts to bring it back: Steven Soderbergh's Solaris remake, Danny Boyle's Sunshine (to some degree) and indies like Primer. People don't tend to think of it as sci-fi but Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind also fits into this camp: movies using outlandish and/or futuristic scientific premises to illuminate something about the human condition or tie us up in theoretical knots.One of the reasons I loved Battlestar Galactica so much during its run (2004-20009... sniffle) is that it lived in an enormous suite in the headier wing of the genre mansion but also kept a couple of rooms in the other, so as not to scare away that sizeable audiences who lives for gunplay and explosions. Loud fireworks work the same action magic whether they're inside an earthbound action movie or light years away between humans and machines.
This is a long way of introducing two recently released indie trailers. The first is the "what if?" implant/romance scenario of TiMER.
I love that the trailer introduces its crazy premise with a coincidental (?) reunion of Buffy the Vampire Slayer's hilarious she-demons Anya (Emma Caulfield) and Halfrek (Kali Rocha), don't you?
The second trailer there is for Moon starring Sam Rockwell. It seems a bit Solaris inspired but maybe that's a simplification (I haven't seen the movie).
I've read from a few sources that Rockwell is just terrific in the movie. But Oscar watchers should probably ignore that buzz. Sci-fi is the last place* awards voters look for acting skill. Even the widespread lengthy brilliance of Battlestar's ensemble resulted in 0 Emmy acting nominations. What they were accomplishing with their ridiculously complex and sometimes alarmingly sneaky characterizations on that show was simply no match for the revolutionary advances in the acting artform taking place over on Law & Order, Grey's Anatomy and Boston Legal [/sarcasm]*Do awards voters like horror acting slightly more than sci-fi acting? Which is to say 'are they slightly less eager to spit on it?' It's arguable but maybe.
