Space movies are cool. That's just a fact, right? Everyone knows that if a film is set in space, it's going to be 90% better than something that isn't. And James Gray's latest film, Ad Astra, is very cool indeed. And no, I'm not going to call it Brad Astra, so don't worry, you're not going to see any of those kinds of puns. This is a story about Brad Pitt. He's feeling a bit Sad Pitt so he travels to space to find his Dad Pitt, in the hopes that things will be a little less Bad Pitt. What? I didn't say I wasn't gonna make any puns. Okay, so that might be simplifying things. Ad Astra follows Roy McBride, an astronaut with a reputation for always maintaining his cool. His heart rate never goes above 80, he always stays calm, and his success rate is incredibly high. Beneath the cool though, is a huge amount of pain that comes from his tense relationship with his father, who went missing on a mission to Neptune 16 years before. When it turns out that his dad might be alive, Roy is sent on a mission to contact him and..... well, you'll see.
It's not an especially complicated plot, but it doesn't have to be. This is a film that's all about the journey, and the things it does well are all related to the trip it takes the audience on. This is one of the coolest depictions of space I've ever seen. It's set in the near future, where the universe is a little smaller. Space travel is totally commercialised, Mars has been colonised, and technology is a bit more advanced than it is now. Every setpiece in this film reveals another part of it's mindblowing world, and the film is incredibly patient in revealing these details. From a crazy chase involving moon pirates to a scene featuring some apes that plays like something out of horror movie, Ad Astra has no shortage of awesome Pittstops on the way to its destination. It should go without saying that, with this focus on an epic journey, that the plot is a little on the thin side, but by and large, that's not really an issue. Apart from the narration, which was pretty unnecessary and becomes slightly distracting after a while, the way the film progresses its story is pretty decent. It's not great, but that really isn't the point, and pretty much everything else here is absolutely top-tier in its quality.
This film is an experience, and as clichéd as it might be to say, needs to be seen on the biggest screen possible. The scenes in space are so vast and quietly powerful that they almost defy words. The vastness is also pinned down to the intimate, interior conflict going on inside Roy, and the way that's contrasted is just fascinating. This is a film that deals in huge spectacle and powerful emotion at the same time, and the way Gray balances the big and the small is just fantastic. The closer to Neptune McBride gets, the stronger the underlying emotion in the story becomes, until it just absolutely explodes into something that's both visually stunning and really, really moving.
A lot of this down to Pitt's performance, and I'm telling you now, if this guy doesn't get an Oscar nod, there's going to be trouble. I will write the most strongly worded letter you've ever seen. You have been warned. So much of Pitt's performance is masterfully understated, which is really impressive because he's the only character you're with for most of the film. It's wonderfully interior, something which, again, is kind of spoiled by the voiceover. Look, it's not an issue for the first twenty or so minutes, but after that it became especially noticeable, and a little unnecessary. Everything great about his performance is in how quiet it is, so when he tells us how he feels, it does throw me off a little. But yeah, his performance is definitely worth the price of admission. It's quiet brilliance among the huge spectacle, and watching how his character is carefully unravelled over the course of his journey is really something special. The whole film revolves around the vulnerability under the stoicism, and watching how Gray slowly, quietly works his way to the centre of McBride is truly a joy to witness
Instead of going for the grand existential musings of any space films, Ad Astra goes inwards, which I know has been done before, but the way Gray takes that idea and maps it against a father-son relationship and then makes it Apocalypse Now in space and then makes it about male vulnerability and then adds space pirates and apes and BRAD FREAKING PITT gives it a little bit of space. The scale is massive, the philosophy is rich and the things that happen in the plot are consistently interesting and incredibly diverse. It is, to borrow from my favourite purple warlord, perfectly balanced as all things should be. Gray understands how to combine these different elements and play them off each other perfectly. It's huge size never takes away from it's poignant musings, and the crazy elements of the world never become a distraction. Everything here fits into place, everything has a purpose, and everything fulfils that purpose really well. It's a fascinating juxtaposition of the vastness of the brain and the gradual shrinkage of space, and by doing it backwards, Gray makes its ultimate conclusion all the more satisfying.
So, Ad Astra is kind of incredible. It's big and small at the same time, unafraid to go to strange places on its journey to the centre of this incredibly stoic man. It's hard to sum into words, because it's such a spectacle to witness, and so emotionally driven (I shed many tears), that it's kind of tough to articulate. It's intelligent, astonishing filmmaking, headed up by a marvellous performance from Brad Pitt. I absolutely loved this film, and it just gets better the more I think about it, because it leaves so much to chew on. The ideas, the visuals, THE SPACE PIRATES, everything in this film is beyond amazing. Yeah, it loses serious points for that voiceover, which is just so obvious and handhold-y, but even that can't detract from how stunning everything else is here. Between this and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Brad Pitt is marking himself as a serious Oscar contender, and honestly if he gets it for either then it's 100% earned, because he's amazing in that and he's incredible in this. Ad Astra, man. Ad. Astra.
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