Ad Astra

— It’s too bad we started thinking of Brad Pitt as a pretty boy since he’s been far more than an adequate actor since about 2006. “Ad Astra” is almost entirely Pitt’s film and he carries it easily. The story takes place in the near future and Pitt’s character, Roy, is the son of a space-pioneering father who, years earlier, traveled farther in space than anyone else, looking for other intelligent life until the earth suddenly lost contact with him and he became the stuff of legend. Roy has followed in his famous father’s footsteps and is a poster boy for the space program, having buried his feelings and compartmentalized his life to the point that he calmly faces any crisis and his pulse never exceeds 80 bpm. He seems immune to emotion and ready for any challenge so, when he’s sent to find his father’s ship, thinking it’s the secret behind a mysterious pulsing that threatens the Earth’s existence, he calmly dons his spacesuit and heads to Neptune in search of his father. The parallels between Roy’s journey and Kurtz’s in Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now are hard to ignore, as are nods to other films that look at our place in the universe. Roy’s journey is one of resolution, of coming to terms with the past, and of realizing you can miss what’s right in front of you if you spend too much time concentrating on the future. The film is gorgeous, like the best of the space exploration genre, and Roy’s evolution is thoughtfully presented. There are minor issues, particularly with the ending which I would have preferred to be a little less tidy, but it’s still one of the best films I’ve seen in a while.

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[2019. 123 min. Directed by James Gray. Starring Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, and Ruth Negga.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/ad-astra-movie-review-2019