Review: Ad Astra

I'm pretty sure 20th Century Fox could come up with a better poster.

Ad Astra is the latest space drama to hit the big screens this year. Directed by James Gray starring Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland and Liv Tyler while also produced by Brad Pitt and his own production company Plan B. In the near future, a devastating power surge strikes the Solar System, threatening all human life. After surviving an incident caused by what the public now calls 'The Surge' Maj. Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) is informed of the situation and that the source that caused the surges have been traced back to the Lima Project base. Roy is the son of famed pioneering astronaut Dr. H. Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones), head of the Lima Project who was tasked twenty-six years prior with finding intelligent life form in the outer reaches of space and who's disappeared along with the members of the Lima Project sixteen years into the mission. Roy is told that his father may still be alive and is tasked with a mission to travel to Mars and to try and establish communication with him. Unsure of what to do when he finally faces his father, Roy  accepts the mission and is briefly accompanied by his father’s old colleague Col. Pruitt (Donald Sutherland).

Brad Pitt as Maj. Roy McBride is tasked with the mission to try and establish communication with his father who's been missing for sixteen years into the Lima Project. 

The film features narration by Roy, stoic and monotone and speaks of the kind of relationship he had with his father and how it shaped the man he became, he is thankful to his father for instilling in him a sense of responsibility with which he dedicated his life to. There are many films about fathers and sons where masculinity and the form that it usually takes is explored and yet very few of them exceeds my expectations like Ad Astra did. I know many reviewers have called it meditative and it is which reminded me of Arrival, and High Life. I was also half expecting for the film to show the main character as an unqualified, incompetent astronaut who got away with it because of his gender. Roy's character is an extremely qualified and competent man for the job who looks to be following the footsteps of his father, yet it was not his love of space travel that made him succeed in his career but his yearning for his father's presence and his approval. This film is very bold in the themes that it has chosen to explore thanks to James Gray and Brad Pitt and it was refreshing the way it never came off as forced and the ending isn't abrupt or rushed. 

Tommy Lee Jones as Dr. H. Clifford McBride

Performance-wise this is probably Brad Pitt's best work as of late, even better here than in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford which up until this film was what I thought was his best performance. He gives Roy the strengths of a man yet the emotional maturity of a boy when he speaks of the rage that brews in him when asked during a psychological evaluation as well as the quieter moments in the film. I wouldn't be surprised if this at least lands him an Academy Award nomination next year. The rest of the cast is solid but wasted aside from maybe Tommy Lee Jones, who does look like he could be Brad Pitt's dad and does his best with what he's given. I'm surprised that Donald Sutherland and Liv Tyler both of whom are getting more work than Jones these days were given less screen time, the former in particular seem to have been only cast in the role of Col. Pruitt due to his previous collaboration with Jones in Clint Eastwood's Space Cowboys and the latter's involvement in Michael Bay's Armageddon. Natasha Lyonne from Russian Doll fame was a pleasant surprise yet also wasted in a two-minute cameo as is Ruth Negga. The visuals are great thanks to cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema who previously worked with Christopher Nolan in Interstellar and Dunkirk.

The MYes ad Max moon chase scene.

Overall, I recommend this to anyone looking to watch something similar to Arrival, High Life and Apocalypse Now (which I have yet to see but many others have seen similarities with) and also for anyone who didn't like Interstellar. My two minor criticisms are that it looks to be re-shot which was probably why it came out later in the year than originally planned as well as how the film feels convenient in how the events pan out both of which the former probably plays a role for my latter criticism and I'd be very curious to know if there's going to be an extended cut so we can see what the filmmakers were actually going for. 

4 1/2 stars.