{"id":4178,"date":"2019-09-22T18:03:39","date_gmt":"2019-09-22T18:03:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bryanbuser.com\/365moviesbyday\/?p=4178"},"modified":"2024-04-07T21:44:20","modified_gmt":"2024-04-07T21:44:20","slug":"ad-astra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/365moviesbyday.bryanbuser.com\/ad-astra\/","title":{"rendered":"Ad Astra (2019)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"“To The Stars” is the Latin translation for Ad Astra, James Gray’s (The Lost City of Z<\/a>, The Yards<\/em>) powerfully ambitious space travel movie that features astronaut Roy McBride (Brad Pitt –\u00a0By the Sea<\/a>,\u00a0The Curious Case of Benjamin Button<\/a><\/em>) going from Earth to the moon to Mars to Neptune in an attempt to stop pulse bursts that have been devastating the Earth that has taken thousands of lives are a poised to take thousands more. The perceived bursts are thought to be coming from The Lima Project, a missing exploration ship piloted by Roy’s father, Clifford (Tommy Lee Jones –\u00a0The Fugitive,\u00a0The Company Men<\/a><\/em>), presumed destroyed decades earlier. Taking the story out of it for a second,\u00a0Ad Astra<\/em>\u00a0is a visually stunning masterpiece that deserves a viewing on the largest screen possible. It doesn’t quite feel like you are floating in outer space (like the equally brilliant\u00a0Gravity<\/em><\/a>\u00a0does), but it’s not that\u00a0far off.<\/p>\n

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In the not-too-distant future, we spend our 124-minute run time with Roy. Pitt plays a nuanced, stoic military astronaut whose voice infliction doesn’t change from opening to ending credits and whose only emotion beyond calmness is a constant sadness visible across his face in one of his finest performances. His beats per minute (BPM) never rise above 80. He consistently passes the psychology tests he and his fellow astronauts must take. He has devoted his entire life to being the best at his profession, often for the sake of his relationships, most notably his significant other Eve (Liv Tyler –\u00a0Armageddon, That Thing You Do<\/em>), which he refuses to let in emotionally and allows to walk out of his life. Beyond being there with Roy and seeing, hearing, and experiencing all he experiences, we also know what he thinks. There are many asides where we watch Roy looking off into the distance; his thoughts relayed to the audience. His perforce can be closest aligned to his performance in\u00a0The Tree of Life<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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On a top-secret mission, SpaceCom recruits Roy to help contact The Lima Project. The Lima Project was a space exploration ship sent to the furthest part of our universe to see if there was any life beyond our solar system. It was presumed to have been destroyed decades earlier, but SpaceCom believes that the ship may be responsible for the pulse bursts radiating down on our planet. They believe that Clifford is alive and could be actively controlling the bursts. They believe that they can use Roy to help contact him, help locate him, and help bring him in. Many problems arise along the way, some of which I’ll mention and others I won’t. But something to focus on early is that the intelligence that Roy has received is not entirely true. Yes, they believe Clifford is alive, but they also think he is personally responsible for the devastation happening on Earth. SpaceCom is attempting to use Roy to obtain a response from Clifford that will track his location so a team can go up and destroy him and The Lima Project with a nuclear bomb.<\/p>\n

If you go into this film thinking it will be like\u00a0Interstellar<\/a>,\u00a0Gravity<\/a><\/em>, or\u00a0The Martian<\/em><\/a>, you might be gravely disappointed. While the film starts as more of an adventure movie, it quickly curtails into something far more artistic, like\u00a0Solaris,\u00a0Passengers<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a02001: A Space Odyssey<\/em>. Not everyone will be prepared for that, especially from a movie trailer that suggests the movie is more of an action\/adventure (I believe you get all of the adventure scenes in the two-and-a-half-minute trailer alone). But don’t let that discourage you. It is a breathtaking movie that is smooth in pace and natural in tone. Never does it feel like it drags, nor does it feel like it’s a movie. I adore\u00a0Gravity<\/a><\/em>\u00a0because I’ve never felt like I’ve been in space more than watching that film on a giant IMAX theater.\u00a0Ad Astra<\/em>\u00a0is the same but in a different way. How many movies have ever taken us to Neptune? How many movies have ever taken us to Mars via the moon?\u00a0Ad Astra<\/em>\u00a0makes these two things seem commonplace. It never feels like Gray is saying, “Oh, look at me. I’ve got Brad Pitt, and I’m doing things onscreen that have never been done before?”All events and situations feel natural, even when we’ve never seen them.<\/p>\n

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There are lots of other themes and elements in this movie, including how people fail to step up in situations that call for them the most, how we often look for the easy way out in events that bring about stress, how sons often can’t help but become their fathers, how the goal of a mission can be deemed unsuccessful if the parties involved don’t find what they are hoping to look for (even if the need of finding something wasn’t the goal of the mission at all), how human emotion eventually plays a role in everything we do, whether or not our BPM ever rises above 80 or not.<\/p>\n

Pitt continues to master acting and has as much range as anyone in Hollywood today. One look at his impressive filmography will confirm this. From\u00a0Thelma and Louise<\/em>\u00a0to\u00a0Legends of the Fall<\/em>\u00a0to\u00a0Snatch<\/em>\u00a0to\u00a0Se7en<\/em>\u00a0to\u00a0Oceans 11<\/em>\u00a0to\u00a0Babel<\/em>\u00a0<\/a>to\u00a0Once Upon a Time in Hollywood<\/em><\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0Burn After Reading<\/em>\u00a0to\u00a0The Curious Case of Benjamin Button<\/em><\/a>\u00a0to\u00a012 Monkeys<\/em>\u00a0to\u00a0Meet Joe Black<\/em>\u00a0to\u00a0Fight Club<\/em>\u00a0to\u00a0Moneyball<\/em>\u00a0<\/a>and everything else in between, he is a champion of his craft. Jones’s performance was satisfactory. It was interesting to see how young they made him look in his spacesuit in the photos. Tyler, Ruth Negga (Loving<\/a>, Of Mind and Music<\/em>), and Donald Sutherland (Ordinary People, Space Cowboys<\/em>) add supporting contributions, and you’ve got an excellent ensemble.<\/p>\n

Through the first nine months of 2019,\u00a0Ad Astra<\/em>\u00a0is the movie of the year.<\/p>\n

Plot 10\/10
\nCharacter Development 10\/10
\nCharacter Chemistry 9\/10
\nActing 9.5\/10
\nScreenplay 9\/10
\nDirecting 9.5\/10
\nCinematography 10\/10
\nSound 10\/10
\nHook and Reel 9.5\/10
\nUniversal Relevance 10\/10
\n96.5%<\/p>\n

A<\/p>\n

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