Movie Breakdown: Ad Astra
Pre-Screening Stance:
I liked James Gray’s The Lost City Of Z, and Ad Astra looks like it might be a similar affair but set in space. That’s exciting. Also, let’s face it, Brad Pitt is one of the most reliable actors working right now, so it’s easy to believe in this film.
Post-Screening Ramble:
Remember Danny Boyle’s 2007 film Sunshine? It followed a crew on a special space mission, and it featured a lot of lens flares, heady chatter, psych evaluations and a super moody soundtrack by Underworld. Well, Ad Astra contains all of those same elements (except it subs Max Richter for Underworld), but where Sunshine eventually becomes a monster movie, James Gray’s latest tows the line and is a true slice of sci-fi through and through.
In Ad Astra, Brad Pitt plays Roy McBride, an astronaut who is revered because he does his job well and has nerves of steel. After the space antenna that he works on suddenly explodes, he’s told that his dead father (Tommy Lee Jones) may not only be alive, but he may be attacking Earth from afar. Roy is then sent on a mission to see if it really is his dear old dad that’s seemingly trying to destroy the planet. I know this sounds like a slick space thriller – and there is a bit of that at play here – but this is largely a methodical movie with a lot of introspective dialogue/narration from Roy. He has daddy issues, relationship issues and more swimming around in his head, and this film closely follows him as he sorts all of it out. Personally, I really enjoyed it, but I don’t believe there’s much mainstream appeal here at all. Does that matter to you? If your answer is no, then by all means should you see this slow burning, intimate affair. On the other hand, if you’re hoping for sci-fi spectacle that’s high on entertainment value, you may want to skip this one.
One Last Thought:
My guess is that it’s unlikely Brad Pitt will be nominated for both Best Actor (Ad Astra) and Best Supporting Actor (Once Upon A Time In Hollywood), but he very much should be. What a year he’s had.
