James Gray's "inward-looking" sci-fi film AD ASTRA starring Brad Pitt

Space is too damn big

Even if you could send a video message from Earth direct to Uranus when they're closest, it'd take over two hours to arrive.

Gray goes over his mistakes. He's such a good subject.

Spoilers (?) for Ad Astra but we watched it lol pic.twitter.com/v7ispODXZ6

— Kate Beaton (@beatonna) September 23, 2019

My bad on the above Uranus calculation -- for some reason, even watching the film, I kept thinking TLJ's character was stuck there and not Neptune. There's probably something insidiously Freudian going on with my memory.

Gray goes over his mistakes. He's such a good subject.

― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, September 25, 2019 4:26 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

That’s a great interview! I think this really hammers home why I have such a problem with what the movie is trying to do:

I think the tragedy of Tommy Lee’s character is that he never found a pleasure in the beauties that he discovered. He never found beauty in the idea that human beings are what matter. The idea of striving is what matters.

But what is there to strive for? New balls of rocks to build houses on? What we see of humanity in this movie isn’t exactly inspiring. Humans have colonized space, but we only see a continuation of the same social structures and conflicts that currently plague us.

Can you blame someone for seeking transcendence in the possibility of contact with some other form of intelligence?

Who wouldn’t go mad after dedicating their life to that search and discovering it was all for naught? And picture just how horrifying being stuck in space with a person undergoing that process of disillusionment would be.

To me, *that’s* the story. The movie borrows so much from Apocalypse Now but ignores Kurtz’s final words:

“The horror...the horror”

The character I related to the most when it comes to the idea of being trapped in space was the baboon tbh

― mh, Monday, September 23, 2019 3:10 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

OTM. The most rational being in the entire film

latebloomer did you see 'high life'?

god, this movie was a beautiful incoherent mess.

As much as I’ve criticized it, I don’t think this an incoherent film at all. It’s not difficult to follow and thematically I think it’s pretty much saying what Gray intended it to. It’s just that what he’s saying with this is mostly just kind of...bland humanist garbage?

latebloomer did you see 'high life'?

― cheese canopy (map), Wednesday, September 25, 2019 8:41 PM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Not yet! Definitely going to though.

it's not great imo but it's definitely a different kind of space movie

It's a much better space movie for starters!

kind of sad that James Gray and Brad Pitt weren’t present for (admittedly not great) audience questions after my viewing of this one, because I had that for High Life

the most boring SPACE MADNESS movie ever

I don't for a minute think there was a space madness aspect. I've tried to create a narrative, but I'm going to go with disconnected thoughts here:

the entire mindset/personality that is needed or desired for space exploration is very emotionally flat, but the movie explores whether we can really have that. the pilot who falters, the characters who are sublimating their emotional needs for the mission, all are revealed. maybe there are people who can remain very calm and complete missions, but our experience is still relatively limited in that we've had months in general, at most around a year of occupation in space

also the element of fixation on a goal, finding extraterrestrial life, adhering to a mission, when it means ignoring base humanity or burying past failures to relate under a veil of purity and purpose

the baboon scene is a callback to space horror, but also a question because we never see what became of the human crew. rotting in the corridor around the corner, or jettisoned out into the vacuum. it's the baser animal metaphor, just anger at being trapped in this tube going nowhere

the father, having decided his crew is at fault for what he views as mutiny, never buries them after so many years. I understand the idea, like latebloomer says, that it's all for naught -- but that's the thing, it's not that life isn't out there, it's that he has removed the possibility of finding it. it's the inability to recognize that they looked into space to the best of their abilities and found great beauty but nothing indicating other intelligent life. likely all the tools at their disposal.. nothing else is going to come of it. maybe a greater expedition with better tools, but TLJ's character has inadvertently broken then best tools they have by removing his crew, and in his arrogance has possibly doomed earth by not letting go

there's also a possibly unintended indictment of the mindset that deems "logic" over emotion as a positive aspect

the death of the crew over neptune framed as their inability to stick to a mission could be seen as a question of command and mission, but it's completely illogical -- the mission ended, they did what they could with the tools, but that premise is rejected on what are really emotional grounds. but it's stated to us as a panic, a need to go home, which is in reality the obvious conclusion. good rejoinder for anyone who makes a "logical" argument without noticing that they're absolutely destroying their natural peers by their actions

It's a much better space movie for starters!

― SQUIRREL MEAT!! (Capitaine Jay Vee)

As one of several ILXors who consider Claire Denis to be the absolute best there is.... I don't think it's much better. High Life is kind of a bad mess as well although it's a more singular mess.

highly trained emotionally distant astronaut vs. a bunch of convicts with a fuck box

Highly trained emotionally distant astronaut character that never really comes across as such due to poor directorial choices, cliched flashback moments galore (example ottomh: sad wife stopping to look at him *one last time* before she walks out door) and exciting yet incongruous action sequences vs. arid and unique "space jail" story - that, yes, includes a wondrous fuck box - that's carried by intense performances and direction from a masterful filmmaker who is obviously not in her element, genre-wise, but revels in it. I'll go with the fuck box one!

I liked both

This really did feel like a Lost City of Z sequel in many ways

As much as I’ve criticized it, I don’t think this an incoherent film at all. It’s not difficult to follow and thematically I think it’s pretty much saying what Gray intended it to. It’s just that what he’s saying with this is mostly just kind of...bland humanist garbage?

I mostly meant incoherent in the sense of strands being introduced that had little to no follow through e.g. Donald Sutherland's character or Ruth Negga saying that she'll likely be punished for letting him board the shuttle (but McBride himself was spared any kind of blowback??). Or just things that took me out of the movie completely (that bit where he's floating through the rings of Neptune was major lols).

And while I understand what Gray was trying to do with the action sequences (i.e. Brad Pitt mirroring his father's journey by causing the deaths of everyone unlucky enough to be part of his futile quest), it was kind of clumsily done and made those sequences seem like parts of a totally different movie.

I need to watch High Life, I think.

I quite liked liked the scene with Brad Pitt swiftly, accidentally dispatching of the crew taking off from Mars, as a bit of (accidental?) slapstick.

I'm inclined to agree with latebloomer, tho mb my view isn't quite as strong. What you say about the 'same social structures and conflicts that currently plague us' struck me too - maybe it's my issue rather than an issue with the film as such, but it felt like with some small narrative changes it could have abandoned the 'near future' space exploration theme entirely. It didn't seem to take advantage of anything that could be interesting about that specific setting.

This movie sucked because Brad Pitt wasn't nude in it.

they at least gave us some shirtless-and-pierced-with-a-feeding-tube action.

I kept being reminded of Apocalypse Now by Brad Pitt's quest and the Steven Soderbergh version of Solaris cos of the use of convenient location real stairs and basements and things.
Is Pitt a little old to be a major astronaut?

Wasn't overly impressed but it did look pretty good in places.

Rotten Tomatoes appears to have the critics really liking it and the viewing public not.

And I too wondered whether I would've liked it more without Brad Pitt's mumbly voiceover. So many beautiful images utterly ruined by his constant droning.

^^ this. Thought this was OK but would have liked it a lot more without abt 95% of Pitts narration, just totally breaking the spell and redundantly telling us what we're being shown. Like on the moon when the space pirates are abt to attack and his v/o is like "here we are again, fighting amongst ourselves for resources, to what end" and its like yeah no shit dude, i get what space pirates are.

You guys react as if Pitt were doing an audiobook.

lol my viewing companion actually used that term exactly, i wouldnt go quite that far. gray was obviously working under the spell of apocalypse now, but particularly for a film that already has a device where the main character regularly delivers confessional monologues onscreen, the v/o just seemed like a step too far most of the time imo.

this was fine enough, not blown away by it, not really disappointed by it.

i liked the little psych evaluations that brad pitt got. i can totally see something that monitors your vital signs and sort of talks to you and makes a judgement as to your fitness to carry out your duties as an extension of current a.i.

the moon bandits bit was so hokey. they know it's dangerous, but nasa or whatever can't be bothered to have closed vehicles or monitor for moon buggies driving across blank terrain to shoot at their people? there was too much action and violence overall for what the movie was trying to be.

I haven't yet seen the film bcz i keep missing the discount matinees.

Innnteresting related screening in NYC:

http://movingimage.us/visit/calendar/2019/10/12/detail/to-the-stars-experimental-inspirations-for-ad-astra

dreadful film, bemused by the profundity some seem to be finding

Tommy Lee Jones specializes in bemusement.

i saw that The Ringer had a roundtable on it by "space movie" nerds I'm quite sure have never seen a Gray film before.

I liked the beginning, where if Brad Pitt's mission succeeds then it means he'll need to reevaluate his past. then it all turns stupid around when the space pirates show up.

odd that gray watched so many experimental films and then didn't use any of it. he should have watched pandorum and lockout instead.

otm, embrace the schlock

i'll wait to rent this. it looked great but I've heard entirely too many people say it blows.

always a reason to go

ppl are eejits

This was ... no Two Lovers.

But, hey, probably the best movie with VFX in it I saw all year so far.

Quite liked this... similar to the Oedipal westerns of the '50s in an attempt to engage mythology with a middle-aged sensibility, through genre. Not shocked that innumerable Jedi/replicants didn't get it.

Sound design was stunning in this, really felt like being in a space pod seeing it in a decent sized theater. Voiceover was overwrought and some clunky lines but w/e, awesome score and it looks magnificent and there's maybe half a dozen stunning shots. not as good as First Man or BR2049 but still very solid.

I like that Natassha Lyonne is the greeter on the moon (or Mars? idfk)

thought it was funny when they get to the moon and the inside is every airport/strip mall, complete with Sbux and Subway

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians is better than BR2049

this is not a fuckin' space movie

idc about space movies but la flor's most tedious hour was more engaging than this

ohhhhhhhh god no

Brad Pitt did the VO beautifully.

"what am i doing here?" - both me and brad pitt during ad astra

yeah he was great, it was the script that was on the nose

I did like one of his final lines about galaxies and nebula being beautiful "with nothing underneath"

also there's a pirate chase on the moon, this is a space movie

I haven't read the reshoot story I posted a couple weeks ago (spoilers). What scenes did they add?

The story didn’t give specifics abt scenes, just that supposedly there were reshoots done against Grays wishes

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians is better than BR2049

Otm