Ad Astra (James Gray)

[Henry Gale]

IMDb (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2935510/) / Wiki (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_Astra_(film))

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYzAzMmViZmItNTk3YS00YmY1LT gwMTUtN2ZiNjBjMDBiNWRjXkEyXkFq cGdeQXVyMTkxNjUyNQ@@._V1_SY100 0_CR0,0,674,1000_AL_.jpg

[Henry Gale]

Extremely good but also often confounding, in ways both positively and otherwise.

It feels very good to have a movie this "big" (budget, star, scope) feel so intimate, subtle and adult. But sometimes that mish-mash of contradictions works better than other times, when you wonder if the money behind it was a hindrance as a battle between studio and director, well, that is, whenever it isn't managing to be successfully euphoric.

I also only saw the first trailer on my phone on a lunch break months ago and retained little memory of it other than its general release date and that I was in, but watching both trailers back last night, well.. not only should you probably not watch them (or if you already did, try your best to shake the expectations they set) but they also have so much added exposition and also significantly made up of scenes completely missing from the final film.

But anyway, the less I say the better. At its best it's as good as anything in the "sentimental sci-fi" sub-genre (which, if forced to make such a decision, might be my most consistent favourite in all cinema) but there are some tiny bumps along the way that don't ruin the experience, but certainly quietly accumulated enough for me to prevent this from feeling like the outright masterpiece it shows vivid glimpses of along the way.

See it! There may never be another thing like it made again under 20th Century Disney.

[Wryan]

Worth seeing in IMAX?

[Henry Gale]

Worth seeing in IMAX?

I didn't personally see it that way but I absolutely imagine so. Gray and Hoytema shot it in 35mm and they both know how to keep things wide (and held long) for maximum spectacle, and IMAX blow-ups of 35mm tend to look less harsh than the digital (mostly 2K-shot) ones.

[Peng]

Worth seeing in IMAX?

Just coming back from it, and yesssss.

[Wryan]

Oh shit didn't realize it was Hoytema, nice.

[Milky Joe]

Beautiful film.

[Peng]

“We’re all we’ve got.” The film evokes first and foremost from that line the feeling of absolute loneliness, driving some to far-out obsessions, and others to seal themselves inwards at the exclusion of all else, illustrated hauntingly by van Hoytema's stunning images of our minuscule place out there among the stars. But the beauty of the film is that throughout, James Gray challenges that line's tenor of crushing pessimism, with the frighteningly vast vitas of space regularly interrupted by close-ups of human faces searching and doubting, until its final inflection arrives at pragmatic reassurance, all the more touching in its notes of resigned acceptance instead of outright hope.

I actually think the film works in spite of itself, as the gears of this moving concept turn too noisily, in what should be left to lingering, muted spectacle and Brad Pitt's performance. (Really curious if, in addition to Liv Tyler, the at-times distracting voice-over is added whole after the fact) Pitt especially is more than up to the task of conveying the character's self-imposed mental block increasingly cracked by the possibility of a connection. The "second voice message" scene ranks up there with the best of his career. 8/10

[TGM]

Between this and OUATIH, Brad Pitt is easily the MVP of 2019 so far.

[Stay Puft]

Lots I love about this, but the last act didn't totally land for me. No spoilers, but I was surprised to see Gray go for some of those obvious visual metaphors; expectations aside, I might enjoy it more on a second viewing, as I was hoping(?) maybe for something a little different than what was offered up. (I do like the final revelation, though, and the way Gray twists this journey to the stars back inwards).

Lots of good action, too, particularly with how it all gets subsumed by Pitt's inner strife ("why am I here..." / "GIVE ME A GUN"). The rover bit was incredible. Kinda want a whole movie about moon pirates now.

[Pop Trash]

Word on the street from James Gray heads is there might have been quite a bit of studio intervention by Fox and/or Disney (who acquired this after they bought Fox). I guess we should be lucky Disney didn't drop this altogether and sell it off to Netflix or something, but I can't imagine somebody as seemingly smart about cinema as James Gray putting in these clunkers of voice/over and the VERY Nolan-esque cutaways to Liv Tyler.

HOWEVER, the film is absolutely gorgeous, not just the cinematography (which is great) but James Gray's director compositions. Almost every shot conveys intelligence behind the camera. Music is great. Brad Pitt gives his best performance since Jesse James.

I guess it goes to his talents that even flawed, studio intervention James Gray can still make one of the best films of the year. I can only hope a director's cut is on the horizon.

[StuSmallz]

Despite some significant positive aspects working in Ad Astra's favor (which I'll get into soon), I can't say that I felt it lived to 100% of its full potential, due to a number of medium-sized flaws such as an unnecessary amount of tonal whiplash between the film's stately, "majesty of space" astral vistas, and the more visceral, blockbuster-style thrills it tries to cram in (such as a jarring detour the film takes into eco-horror halfway through), or the character development or emotional dynamics when it comes to Roy and his father/wife feeling vague and underdeveloped, and almost as detached as the literal distances between the people themselves (the slim scraps of Colonel Kurtz-meets-Doctor Manhattan-style characterization for the elder McBride in particular felt kind of half-hearted and underwhelming, and somewhat undermined a final moral thesis that the film attempts to deliver at the end).


And that last point leads into the film's biggest problem, which is its over-reliance on telling versus showing, with a bit too much unnecessary exposition which felt written more for our enlightment than the characters', and way too much of Pitt's constant, boilerplate, wannabe-philosophical voice-overed ramblings, which felt like they were to try to force the film into having an illusion of a greater depth that it could've earned with a softer narrative touch (you'd think that for all of the film's similarities to/influences from First Man & 2001, it could've resembled those films more in this regard, and maybe not have Pitt tell us how crass the commercialization of the Moon is when we can so easily see that for ourselves with the replication of the Vegas Vic billboard visible on the lunar surface).


However, all that being said, I still liked Astra on the whole, seeing as how Sci-Fi is my favorite genre, so I couldn't help but enjoy the film's vivid conceptualizations of the look/technology of a potential "near future", as well as appreciate the film's mere basic existence in a sea of Hollywood franchises as a wholly original, mid-budget production aimed squarely at adults, and, taken purely on a sensory level, it was an all-immersive experience, with its incredibly moody, shifting, saturated lighting, rich, full-bore, worlds-building production design and effects, and its elegant, ethereal cinematography displaying the inherent beauty of the zero-G balletics, while also capturing the immense, cold terror lying within the endless void called space. So, even though it was a somewhat problematic film, it was still a undeniably memorable one, and made for worthwhile trip to the stars (and the cinema) in the end.

[transmogrifier]

Got a double-bill of this and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood on Sunday. Can't wait!

[Pop Trash]

Got a double-bill of this and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood on Sunday. Can't wait!

I hope you like unnecessary voice/overs!

[transmogrifier]

I hope you like unnecessary voice/overs!

My favorite kind!

[Skitch]

I hope you like unnecessary voice/overs!

"...little did he know, unnecessary voice overs were trans' favorite kind of voice overs..."

[Ezee E]

Some nice spectacle here, and a pretty straightforward story. However, there's a lot of unnecessary dragging here in hopes that it's trying to more than it needs to be. The movie knows it too with the abundance of voiceover.

Really digged Pitt's permanently calm and collected demeanor, and I wanted to see more of the other settings. The Rover chase, cinematography, and score are still among the year's best. All the parts are there.

[transmogrifier]

Easily my favorite Gray.

[transmogrifier]

73/100

Pretty much a mainstream Nolan sci-fi vehicle reimagined to fit the mood of Swan's "Helpless Child," tapping into the existential terror of us being all there is in the universe.

Brad Pitt is exceptional in this, not because he is suddenly an actor with incredible range, but because he understands that this is not a hero picture; instead, a chain of shit happens (a lot of it beautiful or puzzling or brutal) and then you're left staring into the void. And nothing is staring back at you.

[Mal]

This is a gem of a film. I adore how straight Gray plays this. He's a filmmaker who never overplays his hand and its often startling how simple, sophisticated his filmmaking aims to be compared to other guys out there who want to blow you over with style on both the page and screen. Brad Pitt again wins me over. I've been resisting his charms for years but now, to me, I feel like he's reached a point where he's seasoned enough that he can make the material work to his deft abilities and weathered strengths. This won't be my favorite film of the year but the melancholy tone damn near breaking my heart will be something I'll surely revisit.

[Dukefrukem]

Not much to say that others here haven't. I was expecting something far more extreme of an ending climax but what I got was equally effective and jarring the way it was filmed.

[Irish]

I am alone and isolated in the world, alienated from my family but also ... moon pirates?

It's so completely earnest that I feel bad for kicking it but oof this is not a good movie. The medium is wrong; this is an interior story better suited to a novel, not a film.

Gray packs the frame with either close-ups of Brad Pitt or glorious vistas of deep space, so everything is good looking and pretty and easy on the eyes but he rides the too-obvious metaphors until they break and become ridiculous.

It's also strange that a movie that's so detailed and deliberate in its production design is unbelievable in its physical action and emotional landscapes --- Tommy Lee Jones would be absolutely bat-shit crazy after spending so many years alone; the movie renders both father and son as multiple murderers because of the plot, but doesn't want us to think about that too much, so it glides past it; Pitt's ridiculous body surfing in deep space, through an asteroid field.

[Pop Trash]

I wonder if this plays better as an immersive theatrical experience? The takes on it seem to be as divided as Joker. Mike D'angelo fucking hated it and destroyed it in his review. He also inexplicably hated Brad Pitt's performance which I don't get ... like at all?

[Rico]

This bored me to death. I cease to exist now, guys.

[Grouchy]

I quite like James Gray, but this movie was ultimately garbage. It's not like it doesn't have Brad Pitt fighting starved monkeys in space, or a Stagecoach scene set in the Moon with buggy carts, but the end result is boring trite. Come on, people. The father never quite becomes a palpable character and I'm amazed that I'm the first to say this but Pitt's whole third act swimming in space back towards his ship is a ridiculous level of bad writing. It was never established that he was Superman.

And that voice-over, Jesus Fucking Christ. It's like they never read a screenwriting rulebook. V.O. should add something to the narrative, not overexplain what the images and even the plot itself are already telling you quite clearly.

[Peng]

Even though I liked it a lot, I hope this gets a Blade Runner cut down the road, as I share your VO complaint, among other things, as from thetest screening to actual film, this seems to have been heavily studio-mandated. From those who saw both cuts, Liv Tyler has been added whole in reshoot, and the voiceover wasn’t in the original cut at all, or very minimal if so.

[Ezee E]

James Gray is pretty bad at creating characters I've decided.

[Skitch]

I enjoyed this.

[megladon8]

Unnecessary V/O aside, this was great.

[megladon8]

Visually astounding, right from the opening shot. A simple light refraction says so much, provides such a great intro to the story.

Pitt is phenomenal. Everyone is really good, actually.

I was also very surprised how action-y it was. Though I also think the action scenes were the weakest parts. Gray doesn't seem to have a good eye for kinetic action, doesn't know where to point the camera. I felt a lot of tension was lost in the initial falling sequence, just because the camera couldn't decide whether to be a POV shot, or watching Pitt objectively.

[Pop Trash]

Even though I liked it a lot, I hope this gets a Blade Runner cut down the road, as I share your VO complaint, among other things, as from thetest screening to actual film, this seems to have been heavily studio-mandated. From those who saw both cuts, Liv Tyler has been added whole in reshoot, and the voiceover wasn’t in the original cut at all, or very minimal if so.

Wait ... was this confirmed somewhere?

[Peng]

Wait ... was this confirmed somewhere?

I searched and found not much apart from some interview bits like this (https://theplaylist.net/ad-astra-james-gray-interview-2-20190922/2/#cb-content) (and that Liv Tyler was not mentioned at all in the wiki production section, especially on the cast announcement), since it's from someone who saw the test screening cut told me.

[Skitch]

Oh man that sounds like a better cut

[[ETM]]

Oh god, I'm watching this on HBO right now and it's mind numbingly stupid. I knew it was fluff from previous discussions and reviews, but I wanted to see it as a space research fan, and it doesn't even deliver on the technological aspect. It's terribly researched and... ugh. I don't know if even an alternate cut can make it worthwhile. It's pretty, though.

[Mysterious Dude]

I wanted to like this movie because it is really beautiful, and early on, I was making apologies in my head for its stupidity, but there was a moment when it became too stupid for me to ignore, and that was when Brad Pitt stowed away on a rocket ship by climbing a ladder and going through a man hole while the ship was in the last ten seconds of the countdown before lift off. And then, after he was discovered, the crew of the ship decided they had to immediately shoot him to death before the ship had even broken out of the atmosphere.

[StuSmallz]

I wanted to like this movie because it is really beautiful, and early on, I was making apologies in my head for its stupidity, but there was a moment when it became too stupid for me to ignore, and that was when Brad Pitt stowed away on a rocket ship by climbing a ladder and going through a man hole while the ship was in the last ten seconds of the countdown before lift off. And then, after he was discovered, the crew of the ship decided they had to immediately shoot him to death before the ship had even broken out of the atmosphere.Don't forget the scene where Pitt surfs through the rings of Neptune on nothing but a metal door; that one had me thinking "movie, it's okay to be hard or soft Sci-Fi, but you really need to make your mind up about which mode you're working in".