2019’s Ad Astra, directed
by James Gray.
Starring Brad Pitt, Donald Sutherland, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth
Negga, Liv Tyler, Loren Dean, Donnie Keshawarz, Sean Blakemore, Bobby Nish, and
Kimberly Elise.
What is it about?
Set in the near future, after an event of power surges sent
from somewhere out in space damages earth infrastructure and takes human life,
astronaut Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) is recruited by the U.S. military for a
mission to recruit a missing astronaut whom worked for a special project called
“The Lima Project”. The project was designed to find other life in the galaxy,
and was lead by H. Cliffort McBride- before he and his crew disappeared. While
Roy has an interest in space exploration, he also has an ulterior motive- H.
Clifford is his father. With plenty of questions regarding his father leaving
his family behind on earth, and not every aspect of the mission shared with him
by the military, the greatest answers to McBride’s journey lie in the cosmos.
Why is it worth seeing?
I’ll admit to having a certain level of bias, towards both
James Gray films, and this science fiction film’s setting of outer space. It’s
just nice to report that the marriage of these 2 things is such a success. Gray’s
habits of burrowing into his characters’ psyches, of splaying their souls on
the screen for all to digest, and journeying into the voids of humanity and
distance, make for an experience that’s equal parts thrilling and
contemplative.
Squarely in the middle of the experience, dominating the screen for the vast majority of the film, is Brad Pitt, in perhaps his greatest role to date in his career (he is having one hell of year, and I fully expect him to take home hardware home this upcoming Oscar season). It begs the question- what if HAL 9000, the most humane character from 2001: A Space Odyssey, looked like Brad Pitt? Not the logical and cold Artificial Intelligence version of HAL that is utilized by the Discovery One ship’s crew per se, but the personality that HAL displays during a moment of great vulnerability? Pitt’s character of Roy, who never has his heart rate rise above 80bpm, even when skydiving from the earth’s atmosphere with flaming asteroids, certainly starts off the film as a cool customer- one could be forgiven for wondering if this is just going to be a space version of Pitt’s zombie-like portrayals in Meet Joe Black or The Devil’s Own. But as Pitt penetrates further and further into the infinity, and the military’s intentions for him become more disingenuous, his veneer starts to shift, and there’s nowhere to hide. It’s astonishingly intimate how close Gray stays on Pitt’s face throughout the film, and Pitt’s middle aged milieu is a perfect focal point for the story’s metaphor about embracing who we are no matter where we are.
But where does the film go? Gray (and a running on all cylinders effects team) portray the universe as an astonishingly beautiful but fatal place, where the difference between success and death is razor thin, and it owes a lot of its successors a piece of its gross as tribute: 2001, Solaris, Gravity, Moon, Interstellar, First Man- they’re all there in testament to the genre’s power. Explaining mankind’s expansive quest to find something that hasn’t been conquered, and to understand the depth of human experience and find new phenomenon, through an environment of the most dangerous places imaginable, brings up questions about the why of it all. What better place from which to have a series of heart stopping sequences, from an asteroid shower, to a dune buggy shoot out, to space station hopping where you either get on board or float to your death? It’s interesting how this just might be Gray’s most accessible film, from its movie star gloss to the set pieces to stir the adrenaline along with the mind. While somewhat long in length, there’s plenty of enjoy for the action junkies.
Squarely in the middle of the experience, dominating the screen for the vast majority of the film, is Brad Pitt, in perhaps his greatest role to date in his career (he is having one hell of year, and I fully expect him to take home hardware home this upcoming Oscar season). It begs the question- what if HAL 9000, the most humane character from 2001: A Space Odyssey, looked like Brad Pitt? Not the logical and cold Artificial Intelligence version of HAL that is utilized by the Discovery One ship’s crew per se, but the personality that HAL displays during a moment of great vulnerability? Pitt’s character of Roy, who never has his heart rate rise above 80bpm, even when skydiving from the earth’s atmosphere with flaming asteroids, certainly starts off the film as a cool customer- one could be forgiven for wondering if this is just going to be a space version of Pitt’s zombie-like portrayals in Meet Joe Black or The Devil’s Own. But as Pitt penetrates further and further into the infinity, and the military’s intentions for him become more disingenuous, his veneer starts to shift, and there’s nowhere to hide. It’s astonishingly intimate how close Gray stays on Pitt’s face throughout the film, and Pitt’s middle aged milieu is a perfect focal point for the story’s metaphor about embracing who we are no matter where we are.
But where does the film go? Gray (and a running on all cylinders effects team) portray the universe as an astonishingly beautiful but fatal place, where the difference between success and death is razor thin, and it owes a lot of its successors a piece of its gross as tribute: 2001, Solaris, Gravity, Moon, Interstellar, First Man- they’re all there in testament to the genre’s power. Explaining mankind’s expansive quest to find something that hasn’t been conquered, and to understand the depth of human experience and find new phenomenon, through an environment of the most dangerous places imaginable, brings up questions about the why of it all. What better place from which to have a series of heart stopping sequences, from an asteroid shower, to a dune buggy shoot out, to space station hopping where you either get on board or float to your death? It’s interesting how this just might be Gray’s most accessible film, from its movie star gloss to the set pieces to stir the adrenaline along with the mind. While somewhat long in length, there’s plenty of enjoy for the action junkies.
With the Pitt exclamation point of his career in sharp focus, and gorgeous vistas of lovely but deadly space in the background, it’s easy to say that there are few characters otherwise worth exploring. Fans of Liv Tyler should stay away from the wasted opportunity that is here, while those that love Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, and Ruth Negga, will find something- but not too much, in their respective roles as well. While failing to lead up to an ensemble cast, the results do pitch the foreground in sharp relief, of Roy’s journey to find himself and resolve his father issues. The other nitpick (there aren’t many), is a difficulty in sustaining modes of expression. It’s not a surprise to hear about the production undergoing reshoots, as the script can’t seem to decide if it’s going to let Roy be a man of few words, or if we’re going to penetrate his inner world of thought, and splits the difference. It’s a small price to pay in all of the transcendent ideas, and in the world of impactful science fiction films, Ad Astra is a welcome addition to the pantheon that will have as many questions as to mankind’s search for meaning as it does answers.
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