Once a year, around this time of Summer ending and Oscar season ramping up, Hollywood gives us a space movie. A serious introspection on the isolation and enormity of the cosmos. (see Gravity, Interstellar, The Martian, First Man, etc.) These movies show us what it’s like being alone a million or a billion miles from home. Enter Ad Astra. We don’t want you to have to explore this final frontier by yourself, so we sent two of InQua’s best and brightest to guide the way. Houston, do we have a problem?
Ad Astra Movie Review
Cole: Ad Astra is certainly good. It’s pretty to look at, cacophonous to listen to, and provoking to think about. It checks the boxes of a capital M Movie. But. I didn’t love it.
Madison: Yeah, it had all the makings of a stellar movie, shot on film, sweeping shots, intimate close-ups, and great sound design, but it just didn’t have the special sauce to pull it all together. For those playing at home, imagine Terrance Mallick, Christopher Nolan, and Stanley Kubrick all teamed up to make a movie. It would be Ad Astra. But it would also be better.
Cole: And it surprises me that you thought that way too, because you normally love these slow burn, dialog-light sci-fi’s. Like last year’s Annihilation. What do you think was lacking?
Madison: Ad Astra lacks heart. It sort of feels like a tin-man that has all the right bits and pieces but somehow just doesn’t quite have the heart of a movie like Interstellar or a Mallick favorite Tree of Life.
“…imagine Terrance Mallick, Christopher Nolan, and Stanley Kubrick all teamed up to make a movie. It would be Ad Astra. But it would also be better.”
Cole: Hollow could certainly be used to describe Brad Pitt’s acting for the first half. It was on purpose, but still very stilted. The acting word for it is understated. The basic story follows astronaut Brad following in the footsteps of his famous astronaut father Tommy Lee Jones. It’s the vague future and there are sciency energy surges messing with Earth’s electronics emitting from a space station out near Neptune. A space station where Tommy Lee Jones was looking for aliens. Brad Pitt breaks all the rules to reunite with his father and save the planet. Except it’s never quite as action packed as that makes it sound…
Madison: Part of what makes Ad Astra feel hollow is that it doesn’t quite know what it is. Is it a film about the human cost of progress? Is it an intimate look at a father-son relationship? Or is it about what a life of military service does to a human being? Yes to all and somehow to no as well. The film is like a microcosm of its own story — humans are reaching out into the unknown in an attempt to find something mysterious and profound only to come up short and be forced to reconcile with their wounds and damage in their wake.
Cole: And don’t get me wrong, sci-fi movies don’t need action to be good. This vibe was closer to Arrival (which I loved) than Armageddon (which, let’s be honest, I also loved). I think if you do the work to externalize the characters, you can take what you want out of this movie.
Cole (side-note): I really wanted to mention Armegedon there because it is alliteratively pleasing next to Arrival but also because Liv Tyler is in Ad Astra. Playing Brad Pitt’s mostly silent, there-to-look-pretty girlfriend. Or maybe ex-gf. Ex-wife? Definitely person-he-is-doing-this-all-for.
Slow-Burn-Sci-Fi: The Genre
Madison: I agree, a sci-fi movie doesn’t need action to be good. I’m trying very hard to work against the conditioning of the comic book age of cinema. Brad Pitt’s performance doesn’t need to be as charismatic as Tony Stark to be engaging. So I’m ok with a slower-paced, methodical, contemplative character drama. If anything, Hollywood needs more characters like this.
Cole: And I’m okay not totally getting the whole movie. There are some that I walk out of knowing what they were going for and believing that they fell short. With this one, I’m not going to knock it too much until I give it another shot.
Madison: I’d say where Ad Adstra did succeed was giving every cinephile what they want — actual film. From the opening moments of the movie, it is very obvious that director James Gray shot on film with a retro-style lense. And damn if it wasn’t beautiful. Creating sweeping shots of Earth, the Moon, or Neptune is like taking a picture of a sunset, it will almost always come out stunning.
Takeaway? See it on a BIG screen.
Cole: Disclaimer, we got to see it in IMAX and it filled the space. It really won’t be as good of a movie on your laptop in your dorm room with headphones in. Adam Sandler movies work in that medium, this will not. And while we are complimenting it, I’ll reiterate that this is your clubhouse leader for ALL the technical Oscars come next February. And I wouldn’t be shocked at a Pitt acting nod to boot.
Madison: I feel like with one or two more viewings, Ad Astra might begin speaking to me. This again draws a comparison to Terrance Mallick’s Tree of Life which left me feeling similarly (although after having done so, I love it). My prediction is Ad Astra will leave most audiences scratching their heads and the chiefest of critics will either sing its praise or decry its heartlessness.
Cole: Honestly, as two amateur writers with degrees in Math and Hugging Trees (not film) I think the best thing our reviews can do is let you know what you’re getting into. If Mallick-style voice-over and camera work and Nolan-style sound design is your jam, and you don’t need comic book quips to keep from falling asleep, then go check out Ad Astra.
Ad Astra starring Brad Pitt and Tommy Lee Jones is in theaters September 20th. It premiered at Venice. ‘Ad Astra’ translates from Latin to ‘To The Stars.’
If you enjoyed this article, check out a few more collabs from our Utah-based screening duo: