‘Ad Astra’ Film Review
A slow burn character study of isolationism and the human condition
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Ad Astra is a scifi, drama, mystery, directed by James Gray (The Lost City of Z, The Immigrant). Though marketed as some scifi epic similar to The Martian or Interstellar, Gray attempts an ambitious project attempting to create something more akin to Apocalypse Now in space.
The film follows Roy McBride (Brad Pitt), a decorated Astronaut in the near future that treks across the unforgiving solar system to look for his missing father (Tommy Lee Jones), who tends to a secret mission near Neptune. The aptly titled movie which is Latin for ‘to the stars’ is equipped with heavy themes of isolation, relationships and a look at the human condition. This slow burn character study strays far from what the marketing team suggests, which will be polarizing for some audiences. For those with complicated relationships with their fathers, this film may strike a special chord.
This spectacle comes equipped with beautiful cinematography by Hoyte Van Hoytema (Dunkirk, Interstellar, Her), who is rightfully becoming one of the top names in cinematography. The criminally underrated Max Richter (The Leftovers, Arrival) composed a very immersive score that will find its way to a lot of people’s Spotify playlists. With incredible worldbuilding, and likely the most realistic space travel of any movie on the silver screen, audiences will have no problem getting immersed into the cold vastness of space and empathize with Pitt’s nuanced performance showcasing isolationism. Ad Astra does a lot right, but it’s not the perfect movie.
A lacking script penned by Ethan Gross and Gray himself has structural problems and coincidental plot devices that will frustrate many. Perhaps another draft or two would have best served this unique idea. Some sequences don’t feel fully fleshed out and some performances might have found themselves butchered in the editing room. Liv Tyler’s role seemed to have gotten reduced to the workload of a stand-in. Some audiences will feel disconnected, but not because of the themes of isolation, but because it seems that of the half dozen attempted themes, only half come to a satisfying conclusion and resolution.
But oddly, most will be able to forgive some of the qualms. Similar to Steven Soderbergh’s Solaris (2002), the film is plagued with a marketing team that didn’t know how or was scared to showcase Ad Astra for what it was attempting. Those who go in with the right expectations of what is attempting to be accomplished won’t regret seeing this on the biggest screen possible.
Scifi fans don’t get their share often, and especially are deprived of scifi movies with a clear and unique message that play on the genre’s strengths. That’s where Ad Astra succeeds. It’s wholly original and ambitious enough for avid movie and scifi fans to leave the theater satisfied. And when the last shot fades to black — just like Roy — you’ll feel a warm fuzzy feeling of hope and connection with those around you. You won’t want to take human connection for granted. You’ll want to embrace it. And you’ll find yourself feeling thankful for the message and the movie in the car ride home.
