Moonlight by the Sea

This is hardly the worst film ever. More like a failed experiment, but this makes it all the more interesting. While I don't know the director I did talk to him a bit at a screening of the film several years ago. Seemed like a nice guy, but yet seemed strange that the film we watched came from this guy. There is a darkness that consumes just about every interlaced frame in it's 92 min, but at the same time, a weird almost camp feel. Maudlin maybe? How did this film come out of that guy? The big brother ideas in it are a little puerile but nevertheless executed flawlessly for a zero budget film. Incredible cinematography, gorgeous Black and white landscapes. I'd recommend this film to anyone interested in talking through a film as it's playing. The ideas in this are so dense at times it's almost as if you should just listen to the commentary or interact with it somehow and join in the conversation.

Before the accelerated evolution of special effects and 100 million dollar event films, science fiction could consistently be counted on to point the mirror back at us, and discuss topics and ideas that were often not addressed out in the open. Though one may often wonder "how can you accomplish a science fiction film without a hefty budget?" Director Justin Hennard does just that in his MOONLIGHT BY THE SEA, a bordering-on-experimental, hypnotic and disturbing new film that dares to ask questions like "what makes you think you could handle complete freedom, if it was at all possible to regain?"

MOONLIGHT takes place in an unnamed (future) time, an unnamed and overdeveloped city. The Corporation owns, manages, controls, directs, and distributes literally everything in this future world; even illegal drugs are regulated through them, stamped with the bizarre Corporation seal of approval.

Albion Moonlight (Sean Allen) has been a top Corporation salesman for so long he no longer remembers his true name, only his mission. His confining, single-seat spaceship (which he is literally connected to through hundreds of wires) malfunctions on a sales call and crashes on a barren desert planet with limitless borders and wide spaces are far as the eye can see. With no human or Corporation contact, no guidance, no schedule, and no rules, Albion is alone and allowed to think on his own for the first time in his life. And he's never been trained to handle it.

After a flood of thoughts and ideas nearly kills him, he alternates panic, fear, regret, and wonder as he begins to ponder the merits of his lifelong servitude and the whereabouts of his former wife, who was 'removed' from his life many years ago by the Corporation. For the first time, he questions.

Two beings begin to appear to him, the panicked Stranger(Kingsly Martin), a possible copilot of Albion, who is so dependant on the Corporation for guidance that he literally short circuits from his disconnection, and Nomman, (Prince Camp) a charismatic yet slightly sinister man who attempts to pry free thought from Albion's mind at any cost. Do they exist, or are they the representations of Albion's dual allegiance (Corporation-sponsored thought vs. unrestricted thought)? Albion soon learns that either side can be too dangerous for a naked mind.

Running the operation to locate Albion is Gwen Klaus, (Mylinda Wenz) a beautiful and manipulative Corporation official who may know of Albion's whereabouts, but doesn't seem to let on. Is she living vicariously through Albion's escape? Gwen's personal escape is through the Corporation-brand drugs, illegal if taken by members of the ruling board; she alternates her teasing and manipulation of Captain Santop (Gary Peters), who does his best to placate Gwen and the unseen 'Chairman', and is rewarded with brutal mental reconditioning.

Both Albion and Gwen are searching for connection and understanding, in a world that only approves of superficial connections through products that they're continually told will improve their lives and standings. Characters are constantly observed by cameras manned by unseen monitors and the system is so overwhelming that any rebellion will be limited to the realm of thought, or officially sponsored by the Corporation. No, doesn't seem relevant to the times I live in…

Director Hennard knows that the genre is about ideas and isn't afraid to lay them on, digging much deeper than the easy statements the plot could jump on("Corporations big and bad, freedom good"). Among the more haunting ideas the film touches on is that it may be truly too late to alter the system before it absorbs and alters us, and that the only way out may be total disconnection(death). Perhaps people could not handle infinite choices and directions they could go in... One also gets the idea that the system has been running on autopilot for too long, with truly nobody at the top; and that even unrestricted thought may be purchased and co-opted by outsiders.

The impressive black and white cinematography hearkens back to the stark, arresting visuals of The Twilight Zone. The droning, eerie sound design is also a standout; when one doesn't have the budget to truly depict a megalopolis or a spaceship crash, one falls back on their strengths and Hennard manages to use his visual design and soundscape to fool us into thinking we've seen something with a much grander budget than there is. Crossing the look and pace of Eraserhead with a Philip K Dick story, it's a sci-fi parable told as a bizarre dream, through a mellowed pace and symbolic layers of imagery. It may seem pretentious to or throw off casual viewers, but those who can unplug themselves from the machine for a brief period will find plenty to chew on. One of the better-acted indie films I've seen, Sean Allen and Mylinda Wenz keep us hooked, ditto the supporting cast.

Albion Moonlight is a salesman, a finely-tuned corporate instrument who has never evolved to a state of independent personhood. The umbilical electrodes connecting him to his space capsule monitor his biorhythms. The ship's artificial intelligence continually prompts him for personal data.

When his capsule crashes, the computer system connecting Albion to The Corporation crashes too. The salesman is unwittingly born into the world of free agency. Having relied for so long on mental paradigms from the corporate employee handbook, he is initially unable to structure his own thoughts. The unfamiliar landscape in which he finds himself is the a priori system of archetypes through which newborn babies filter their experience.

A universe of binaries takes shape around him. His spaceship lies in a sun-scorched desert, but a lust for the sea floods Moonlight's brain. Appearing out of nowhere a frantic fellow salesman reiterates company policy. Must report. Appearing just as suddenly, a magnetic stranger entices Moonlight to rebel.

The story seriously questions whether humans can operate independent of the sign systems implanted in them by society. Even The Corporation's reprehensible acronym for a customer (Signature to Lease Unlimited Goods--SLUG) is less destructive than an absence of conceptual structures. Albion has no means of categorizing the two strangers in the desert, for example, and chaos results.

Concurrent events at Corporate Headquarters question whether escape is even possible. Is Albion's disappearance a corporate slight-of-hand?

MOONLIGHT BY THE SEA tackles questions weighty enough to level a movie of lesser craftsmanship. The black and white cinematography is selective enough to help distill the major existential themes. Low-key lighting camouflages the bare-bones sets. A roiling sound design--a la IRREVERSIBLE--keeps viewers vibrating uncomfortably in their seats. The acting achieves an effective balance between stylized role-playing and emotional revelation. The script evenly distributes the expository burden between dialogue and flashback. One or two speeches seem abruptly declarative, as did Albion's recitation of the four phases of a sales call. However, the four phases themselves were fascinating, and the sequence was well-edited, interlaced with glimpses of a glib, beaming Albion peddling aerosol satisfaction.

The film employs enough of a three-act structure to accommodate Western perceptual needs, but it also lapses into non-narrative segments, stranding us, like Albion, with our own disordered streams of consciousness.

OK, let's just get this straight. Whoever is saying this is good is lying/ on drugs/ a friend of the director. I saw this at a film festival and I was with another (I kid you not) eight people. ALL OF THEM said this was the WORST film ever made. My buddies and I now talk about watching it in endless horror. We actually say, when talking about a bad film, "Was it Moonlight by the Sea bad?" to which the reply is, "Oh man - nothing is Moonlight by the Sea bad". I apologise if the guy who made this mortgaged his house or whatever and - seriously - I hope this does well for him, but I cannot lie: the film almost drove me to run out the cinema screaming for daylight.

Good luck to the director. Probably a lovely guy, and he went out and did his movie and good on him - but, whoo boy, this is a bad film.

I saw this film by Justin Hennard at the 2004 Fearless Tales Genre Fest in San Francisco and it simply blew me away! 'Moonlight by the Sea' is a tale of a man's battle within himself and the company that owns him. Set in the near future, one conglomerate company - The Corporation, now owns the world. Albion Moonlight (Sean Allen), is The Corporation's top salesman and foot soldier, who while traveling on an urgent and important mission, crashes his spaceship onto a barren planet with no chance of rescue, communication or possibility of completing that 'big deal.' Meanwhile back on earth, everyone is linked to The Corporation either by employment or the mass consumerism of its mind-altering, addictive products. This is 'Big Brother' on a more logical scale - and eerily - it doesn't appear so far off from the distant future when reviewing the country's status today. Albion, now free of the Corporation's wiring and mechanized thought-reading equipments that have been part of his being for most of his adult life, is, for the first time, alone. His journey through the dry and desolate landscape puts his 'own' mind into overdrive. Have the voices of the Corporation finally stopped? Does he now have free thought and a chance to escape? Unfortunately 'no.' With all this 'free time' on his hands and the fear that he will eventually be rescued and returned to 'active' duty, he obsesses on how to complete his mission. So 'new' is free thought and privacy to him, that he conjures up 2 beings to walk his journey with him; there is Stranger, played by Kingsley Martin, who expertly portrays the side of Albion's brain that is 'all Corporation'. When Albion lets his thoughts wander to the other side of his brain and the prospective of a real life, Stranger begins to short circuit! Albion leaves Stranger behind with the ship to pursue other avenues of thought and escape. His childhood, a loving mother, a once-loving wife, and happy days - all flood back to him. He is allowed free thought and for once, no one can hear it! Enter Nomman, played by Prince Camp. Nomman is the human side of Albion's brain, slowly and patiently trying to reopen the dried riverbeds of Albion's mind, which are much like the landscape they are traveling together.

As we journey through Albion's complex and resigned existence, the film is intercut with high-tech scenes from Corporation Headquarters and our introduction to Gwen Klaus, played by the gorgeous and capable Mylinda Wenz. She is charge of all product sales and the 'correct' thought patterns of her drone workers. She is thrown off schedule by Albion's disappearance and the corporation demands answers and solutions. The Corporation products, which are denied use by any corporation member, are also becoming part of Gwen's closet addiction. She enlists the aid of Capt. Santop (Gary Peters) to assist her, and in an unusual twist of subliminal romance, he covers for her and accepts her strict and clinical abuse, even after discovering her illegal usage. For more storyline, you simply have to get your hands on a copy of this great film. MOONLIGHT BY THE SEA is not your average, run of the mill, sci-fi romp. You're really going to have to put your thinking cap on kids and start using a little gray matter for this one! Justin Hennard has brilliantly created a future world and a hopeless existence for all living under the dictatorship of one singular mindset. He opens the film within the dark and claustrophobic hull of Albion's small ship, and with an ever-widening pinhole of light, he slowly opens the frame to reveal a constricted world.

Shot in lush black & white - a wonderful switch from the computerized C.G.I. fare of today - Hennard's photography grows comparison to the high-art camera work of 90' icons Bruce Weber and the late Herb Ritts. His streamlined sets, lighting, and total attention to detail and continuity, make for very sophisticated viewing. It took me to a far away place - I never once looked at a shot and thought - 'Oh, I know where that is!' Moonlight's look and expression reminded me much of those great French filmmakers from the 1960's. Quite impressive from a new filmmaker who is still very young - but only in years! An art film? Yes. An allegory to today's consumerism and greed? Absolutely!

There isn't a lot of action, just human condition. I think Ray Bradbury and Rod Serling would cheer at Justin Hennard and Jonathan Ackley's intelligent screenplay. I found 'Moonlight' very similar to one of my favorite films; Stanley Kramer's 1959 film of Nevil Shute's WW III epic, On The Beach, which placed Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner in a tale of apocalyptic proportions and relied solely on their 'humanness' as a storyline - and not millions of dollars of special effects.

Some may think MOONLIGHT BY THE SEA a bit highbrow and surreal, but maybe its just time for all of us to start using that part of our brain not controlled by the mass media and look a bit deeper as well. * * * * *