SCI-FI is not just the domain of big-budget 3D spectaculars, as newcomer Jones proves with his thoughtful low-cost debut Moon.

With just $5 million, a great script and an astounding performance from the ever-under-rated Rockwell, Jones has crafted a clever film set entirely on a moon-based mining operatin manned by a lone astronaut (Rockwell).

That singular spaceman - Sam Bell - is only two weeks away from the end of his three-year contract when strange things start to happen.

Having only a calmly voiced robot named GERTY (voiced by Spacey) for company, Sam has picked up a touch of space madness brought on by the loneliness and desolation of his job.

He's started talking to himself and hallucinating, which leads to an accident in his moon rover - and that's where things really start to go bad for Sam.

To say anymore would be to give away the story's neat twists, which aren't sprung on the audiences as surprises but unveiled gently throughout the film's well-paced 90 minutes.

Even talking too much about what makes Rockwell's performance so amazing - and it is - would spoil things, but believe that it is a turn well worth seeing.

Jones' direction is simple and neat, and pays homage to the sci-fi classics of the '70s, most notably 2001: A Space Odyssey, Solaris and even the equally low-budget cult favourite Dark Star in its bare, simplistic look and the intelligent ways the story portrays the practicalities of the genre.

It won't be to all tastes, especially those who like their sci-fi less pensive or more bombastic, but Moon is an excellent addition to the genre.

And I was hoping to be the first reviewer to not mention that Duncan Jones is the son of David "A Space Oddity" Bowie, but I couldn't help myself.