Futurist Arthur C. Clarke, the co-writer of Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece, “2001: A Space Odyssey,” famously said, “Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.” That existential notion of our scary, insignificant place in the greater cosmos— and that in the end, no matter what’s out there, we are all we truly have— is the beating heart of director James Gray’s terrific, ambitious, sometimes esoteric new interstellar odyssey “Ad Astra.” Melding the anxiety of the unknown and the fear of who we truly are our core, all that we try and compartmentalize emotionally as human beings, Gray crafts a movie that is deeply personal, thought-provoking, and thrilling.
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Distilling the extraordinary achievement of space travel and all that this impossible endeavor entails— the mysteries, the wonders, the awe-inspiring, terrifying possibilities and the superhuman determination it takes— Gray’s movie is a “Hearts of Darkness”-esque voyage of horror and self-discovery. “Ad Astra” is also a metaphysical, meditative fathers and sons art movie wrapped up inside of a thrilling interstellar epic.
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Much like his famous father before him, Maj. Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) has dedicated his life to the exploration of outer space. Indifferent to stress with one of the most untroubled heart rates of all time, McBride is an elite, special forces-like astronaut. But his astounding composure also makes him impenetrable and unknowable to distant to those around him, especially his wife (Liv Tyler, unfortunately, more of a symbol than character).
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Set in the near, but distant, future, strange power surges have been crippling the planet, causing disasters and, in a visceral, harrowing opening sequence reminiscent of Damien Chazzelle’s “First Man,” almost cost McBride his life. U.S intelligence believes the culprit is cosmic rays emanating from Neptune, a potentially related holdover from the Lima Project, a mission lost in space, nearly two decades ago led by Roy’s father Clifford (Tommy Lee Jones). But the U.S. government also believes Clifford may still be alive, so it sends Roy on a top-secret mission to the fringes of the galaxy to investigate. The answers sought are seemingly always just outside our reach and many hostilities, horrors, mysteries, and surprises await.
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Co-written with Ethan Gross (“Fringe”), “Ad Astra” is perhaps a little slow to launch. Featuring a lot of voice-over, the movie feels, at first, like it’s a journey intended to appeal to mainstream audiences. But once the drama unfolds itself around Mars— the voice-over reveals itself to be more of an homage to “Apocalypse Now” and a similar character that cannot express himself without internal narration— the picture starts to truly gel. Ultimately, “Ad Astra” is arguably both Gray’s most commercial enterprise and yet still his most unyieldingly artful. The filmmaker then takes the Coppola/’Darkness’ concept one step further, constructing the movie in a very similar Joseph Conrad-like narrative about a man, accompanied by special forces, going down the river of hell to eliminate a target with extreme prejudice. But the subversion of this trope is both unexpected and heartening.
Grappling with concepts of masculinity and all that encompasses, good and bad, Gray’s film is also rooted in a nostalgic, bygone notion of dignity, heroism, and courage; American ideals that in this day and age may no longer exist. “Ad Astra” in some ways, is also a tribute to the ubermensch that embodies the American astronaut; the type of explorers that ventured a little past the boundaries of what we thought was possible to achieve the impossible, to paraphrase Clarke’s notion of discovering our human limitations. But without overromanticizing it all, the movie never forgets the price of striving for excellence and the struggle and emotional cost that it puts oneself and family.
Crafted in the grand tradition of heady sci-fi meant to brush against the ideas of existence and why we’re here—Kubrick’s “2001,” Nolan’s “Interstellar,” Tarkovsky’s “Solaris” and it’s Soderbergh-made remake (of which it arguably most resembles)— Gray, as he routinely does, uses the Trojan Horse of genre to explore something more reflective, more profound, more human. If there’s a dreamy, idealistic side to the movie, it’s in the courageous, self-sacrificing impulse to risk it all for the collective good of human discovery.
Co-starring Ruth Negga, Donald Sutherland and John Ortiz among others, the ensemble cast is strong, but “Ad Astra” is mostly a one-man show for Pitt and his performance is dutifully unshowy but still affecting. Featuring an outstanding score by Max Richter and some additional music by Lorne Balfe, and beautiful cinematography from Hoyte van Hoytema, “Ad Astra,” at the very least, if the picture is too remote for your taste, is grandly cinematic.
The Latin phrase “Ad Astra,” translates in English, as “through hardships to the stars,” and it’s through this archetypal essence, without struggle, there is no wonder and reward, that Gray’s moving drama ultimately finds great hope and humanity on the far edges of space. [B+/A-]
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