Duncan Jones

Between Moon and Mute, Duncan Jones seems to have stumbled a little. Can he rediscover the focused footing of his first films?

In 2016, gamers, fantasy fans and non-aficionados of either camp emerged splintered from Duncan Jones’ Warcraft adaptation. Two years on, Jones’ Netflix-released Mute has caused more ruptures. While most critics have been apoplectic, Jones admits to feeling “recharged” by equally vocal fan-love on Twitter.

Somewhere between these poles sits the question of Jones’ next step. With his 2009 debut, Moon, he offered a contained, affecting space-fable, helmed with taut style. Next, he added more stars but sustained the intellifocus with looping Hitchcock-doesPhilip K. Dick thriller Source Code, proving a flair for small-scale, bigbrained and open-hearted sci-fi.

Sadly, 2016’s fully felt but flawed Warcraft showed Jones worked better under financial or plot limitations. While Moon and Source Code were – largely – one-location brain-pieces, Warcraft’s battle sequences and interspecies bickering left Jones looking lost.

Initially, Mute seemed the right antidote. It’s a passion project, made without studio interference. The Berlin setting and compositions from Jones’ late father David Bowie’s Berlin-era works imply deep emotional ties to its themes of how families work. And it’s dedicated to Bowie and Marion Skene, who raised Jones when he was a nipper.

Yet even away from tentpole turf, Jones uses his free hand to lob everything he can screen-wards, muzzling momentum and meaning with detail and incident. Nods to M*A*S*H’s gonzo surgeons here, Blade Runner riffs there, a paedophilia subplot from who-knows-where… these homages suggest hidden meanings only to lead down dead ends, leaving pacing and emotional piquancy behind.

Frustrations deepen with lingering proof of Jones’ strengths. Just as Moon showcased Sam Rockwell’s best, Jones gets good work from Paul Rudd as a half-man, half-moustache sleazoid; and Alexander Skarsgård does better than critics allowed for. Jones is right to say it’s the kind of “dark and unusual movie” studios don’t usually make. If he wasn’t too busy with the world-building, such qualities could have shone bright.

As this and his fan base suggest, the result is no career-killer. But Jones’ next step may be crucial, not least because his 16-years-waiting passion pic is now done. And it’s hard not to feel that the smart focus of his early films would be something we could all get behind. KH