Ad Astra
is the kind of movie that sits with you, that weighs on you. It’s one of those experiences in a theater that is tough to shake for a while after you’ve seen it.
The film first comes across as a simple vehicle for “Brad Pitt in space,” but at the same time, the simplicity of that concept becomes the strength of it. James Gray’s sparse direction and Hoyte Van Hoytema’s expansive-yet-intimate cinematography craft an environment that truly invades your psyche. Above all else, though, the film really is a platform for a Brad Pitt performance that transcends his virtually unparalleled stardom and elevates the film to something that demands — and deserves — your attention.
The skeleton of the film is simple: successful astronaut Roy McBride (Pitt) discovers that his famous astronaut-father may not have died years ago as he thought but instead might be camped out somewhere near Neptune, wreaking havoc and causing power surges across Earth. The film follows McBride on his journey to contact his father, which becomes an exploration not only of the far reaches of the solar system but of the toxic masculinity that McBride’s father instilled in him and the emotions he has repressed his whole life because of it.
Reminiscent of such epics as
Apocalypse Now
,
2001: A Space Odyssey
, and
Blade Runner: 2049
, the cinematography and set designs are vast and isolating, setting the stage for a character piece about a man who closes himself off to the warmth of human connection and seeks out the emptiness of space because it’s easier than confronting the vulnerability of his own feelings.
The subtle, yet masterful, worldbuilding that cloaks the edges of the film features a near future where humanity has turned its efforts towards the pursuit of extraterrestrial life. This singularly outward search complements McBride’s pursuit of space exploration in order to ignore his personal demons; in this way, he represents a world unwilling to face problems at home that instead turns outward to distract itself.
The film is full of great performances. Ruth Negga and Tommy Lee Jones are particular standouts, in addition to a single-scene-stealing turn from Natasha Lyonne. Negga’s character becomes a foil to the repressed and stoic McBride, serving as an example of the good that can come out of caring for and connecting to those around you. Tommy Lee Jones as McBride’s father, on the other hand, is an unrelenting presence and brings to light McBride’s personal demons. His father lurks in his psyche until the film comes to its explosive end, closing out on yet another note of the emptiness that the film — and its main character — can’t seem to escape.
This space epic delivers a spectacle of filmmaking that just feels significant, and it’s all anchored by the type of seasoned performance that only a figure like Brad Pitt can deliver. It’s a performance that can only come from years spent in front of a camera and decades spent commanding an audience.
The kind of starpower that Brad Pitt has is something that’s been parodied and exaggerated for almost as long as he’s been a leading man, and in
Ad Astra
, Gray gets a performance out of Pitt that harnesses all of the attention and scrutiny that comes from being in the public eye. The result is a portrayal of a man who has never allowed his heart rate to climb above 80 bpm and a demonstration of the damage that such suppression of emotion can cause.
Of the two Brad Pitt films from this year that explore ultra-masculinity, this is the far more nuanced, layered one. Pitt’s character in Quentin Tarantino’s summer hit
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
celebrates the other side of the fame that stars like Pitt have — the easy confidence that comes with a long career of having your name put above the title on movie posters. Even as a stuntman-turned-butler-of-sorts,
Hollywood
’s Cliff Booth exudes Brad Pitt’s movie-star charisma. While Tarantino simply uses Pitt’s natural stardom, however, Gray dissects and attempts to uproot it.
Following
Hollywood
,
Ad Astra
further intensifies and complicates Pitt’s “Best Actor” odds at the Academy Awards this year. Nominated by the Academy six times in total (three times each for acting and producing,) the only trophy Pitt’s taken home has been for producing 2014 Best Picture-winner
12 Years a Slave
. This year presents his best chance yet to finally grab the acting Oscar that has so far eluded him, but with two Oscar-worthy performances this year in
Hollywood
and
Ad Astra
, his candidacy is complex.
Pitt himself has declared that he “is gonna abstain” from Oscar campaigning this year, referring to the tradition leading up to the Academy Awards of a “for your consideration” campaign. Such an effort involves advertisements, parties, and promotional events geared towards Academy members in an attempt to sway their votes. This is generally regarded as the most likely — and often only — path to an Oscar, so Pitt’s abstention is an unusual move.
Such a declaration against the “typical” Oscar process, however, is not completely out of character for Pitt, who has been vocal about his beliefs that films shouldn’t be judged solely on their box office or awards successes. A recent
New York Times
profile revealed that when Moonlight — a film his production company, Plan B, produced — won the top prize at the Oscars, Pitt was busy having dinner at James Gray’s house. When Gray told him about the now-infamous
La La Land
-mixup at that year’s awards, he reportedly responded with not much more than “Oh wow, that’s cool.”
Pitt seems averse to the Hollywood bureaucracy epitomized by the Oscars, but sometimes all a performance needs to stand out to the Academy is an interesting narrative, a recognizable and popular face, or pure talent — all of which Brad Pitt has in spades. The only question that remains is whether the Academy will go for his higher-profile supporting effort in Hollywood, or his more under-the-radar lead performance in
Ad Astra
.
Though both are deserving, the
Hollywood
nomination is likely to overshadow the possibility of one for
Ad Astra
. If that happens, it feels like a waste of such a career-defining performance from an actor who has, impossibly, managed to soar even higher in the Hollywood zeitgeist.
