Review - Ad Astra

Ad Astra is Apocalypse Now in space, with sad Brad Pitt. It's one of those cases where I have essentially done the entire review in a sentence and I now have to spend three paragraphs pretending that I haven't immediately negated the entire review. To get a little more into the plot, Brad Pitt plays an astronaut called Roy McBride, whose dad has disappeared off into the vast nothingness of space. After suffering a high (like, really high) altitude fall, he is informed that his dad has gone missing and that no emergency signals are being reached. Obviously, being the best astronaut and having very intimate connections to this lost pilot, Roy is the perfect man for the job! This film being set up and pitched how it is, most people already have a real solid view of how this films shakes out, although I won't spell it out too much if you haven't twigged. It really is Space-pocalypse Now though, with Roy travelling deeper and deeper into the darkness, with the twisted nature of the world working as a reflection of his inner turmoil until we reach the dark heart of whatever it is that's out there. It isn't groundbreaking stuff but it's a very generic structure applied well, can't take it down for that.

At this point, I usually talk performances and stuff but I don't think there is really anything here to talk about apart from Brad Pitt. Sure, there are notable performers like Liv Tyler, Ruth Negga and Tommy Lee Jones and they all do well, but their presences are fleeting, it is all about how Rad Sad Brad is, Mad 'bout his Dad. Brad Pitt doesn't do a lot of work anymore, but when he does it is a cinematic treat and this year, we've had a real selection box. Back in August there was Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, where he was playing swaggering, Tyler Durden-type Brad, just getting to chill and be a cool dude. Chill and cool are still applicable to Pitt's work in Ad Astra but this time, it's about how emotionally chilled he is, because this is much closer to Assassination of Jesse James Pitt. It's funny, in describing all of this, it becomes clear that we have seen this kind of work before from Pitt but he has a way of making it seem refreshing. This is a character whose heartbeat never rises above a certain level, but Pitt is able to extract a level of layeredness (urgh, I hate myself for writing that) here. He is, like onions, parfait or ogres, layered. Layers and layers keep getting peeled away and as we race through it, we start to worry what we'll see in the middle. It all works because of the mighty and mighty handsome shoulders of Brad Pitt, so we thank you for your service to weird shit sir.

The tricky thing is, I don't feel like I've really talked about the substance of the film at all yet, and that is the true problem at the heart of Ad Astra. This is a film whose craft is stunning. The visuals are from Hoyte Van Hoytema, who previously did work on Interstellar and her and I know I felt the influence of both of those here. From Interstellar, there's a grand sense of galaxial scale that is near impossible to comprehend and from her, there is some beautiful but very gentle world building, in which the near future we see feels entirely believable. In the score too, there is stunning beauty, this time from Max Richter, creator of the score for Black Mirror episode Nosedive, as well as the song that was the crowning achievement of Arrival's score. Together, they make for a sci-fi visual and soundscape that is often jaw-dropping, pulling no punches from first shot to last. Unfortunately, there's just... A bit too much emptiness? This is a really hard critique to quantify but for all the great acting, cinematography and score, there is just an emotional lack that bugs me. On the one hand, that works thematically because of the emotional distance that Pitt's character experiences, but that feels like an easy way of excusing a film that does have emotional kernels buried in it, waiting to be popped properly. It just... It just should be a bit more. I don't know how else to extrapolate on that, I really don't.

So should you see Ad Astra? The answer is still an easy Yes. Films like this don't come along often and for all the emptiness, it is visual and sonic splendour worth witnessing on the biggest screen you can. You may not love it, you may not even like it, but I think you can get some really interesting conversation out of it, god knows I have. With all that said and considered, I'm going to give Ad Astra a strong