Ad Astra

Wow!

Ad Astra is the first film I have watched (in the theatre) with Walter since moving back to the east coast (just a six-minute walk from Walter’s place) and it's a winner. Based on Walter’s reaction to the film, my guess is it will end up among the top three films of the year for both of us. 

Ad Astra is a slow-paced intelligent sci-fi film (i.e. one of my favourite genres) starring Brad Pitt as Roy McBride, an astronaut who is as unemotional and cool under pressure as anyone could be. He gets his self-control from his father, Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones), who left his family behind when Roy was thirteen in order to head up the Lima Project (a trip to the far reaches of the solar system to hunt for signs of intelligent life). Space Command (SC) lost touch with the Lima Project years ago and Clifford is presumed dead, but when power surges originating near Neptune threaten all life on Earth, Roy is told his father may still be alive and the Lima Project is likely responsible for the power surges. SC wants Roy to fly to Mars to send a message to his father, offering help and maybe bringing him home. Stunned, Roy sees no option but to agree, though his journey will not be what he imagined.

The plot sounds like a grand space adventure, and in some ways it is: the stunning cinematography and special effects, combined with some shocking action sequences, make viewers feel like they are really in space. Ad Astra can be favourably compared to the best space films ever made. But at its heart Ad Astra is the intimate story of one man suddenly confronted with his past and the choices he and his father have made. With the use of frequent voiceovers, we experience Roy’s struggles with him. Aided by Pitt’s pitch-perfect performance, much of it in his eyes and expressions, Ad Astra tells that intimate story very well. 

Ad Astra is directed by James Gray, who made the excellent Lost City of Z, but Roy’s voiceovers and the slow pace make it feel, to me, like a Terrence Malick film, especially The Tree of Life, another of Pitt’s best films. Walter disagrees, noting that Ad Astra was riveting from beginning to end in a way that Malick films are not. For me, Malick films are often riveting from beginning to end, so Walter and I will have to discuss this further. In any case, we both agree that it’s a great film.

Aside from Pitt, few actors get a chance to do much in Ad Astra, but Jones, Ruth Negga and Donald Sutherland stand out. 

Critics talk about how Ad Astra lies somewhere between Apocalypse Now and 2001: A Space Odyssey. There is certainly truth to those comparisons but I think Ad Astra feels unique and deserves to be discussed as a classic in its own right. **** Two mugs up!