Moon

Sam Rockwell. That's basically the entire movie. Sam Rockwell, an actor who may be the best genre performer in the world today. He's so funny, so active, so able to slip from high-highs to low-lows, all without losing either focus or intensity. In Moon, he's one guy, stuck on the moon, and there are clones. He's got to get the world to see what's really going on, and he's not entirely all together. There are big questions in this one, like what makes a person the person they say they are, and what rights do we give to government and business to our lives. There are also little things, like how does a person in space deal with being in space. These are neat little touches, but then you get Rockwell playing his role so well, drawing you in a bit slowly, then making you take the adventure with him. That is what a good genre actor has to be able to do, make an unreal situation into something you feel like you're a part of. In Moon, Rockwell not only manages to do that, he also manages to bring some deep human emotion to the film, and that moves it into a higher orbit. Why it's on the list: Director Duncan Jones is a boss, and Sam Rockwell.