James Gray, for my money, is a very underrated
director. Since his feature debut with Little Odessa (1994) he
has quietly put together an impressive body of work with enough of a connecting
thesis to merit being treated as a genuine auteur. He doesn’t make many films
but they all tend to have something to say and they are worth the wait.
Gray’s films look at masculinity, He is not
overly concerned with the toxic sort that Scorsese for example finds so
fascinating, he tends to look at masculinity in a family setting. Whether it is
in The Yards (2000) or We Own the Night (2007) or The Lost
City of Z (2016), Gray’s characters are caught up with a drive to find
their own destiny while at the same time conforming to the demands of their
familial responsibilities.
Ad Astra is perhaps the most considered
example of the Gray canon so far. It is the story of an astronaut (Brad Pitt)
who is sent on a mission to find his long-presumed dead father (Tommy Lee
Jones). The older man was presumed lost in space but appears to be still alive
and in charge of technology which threatens the future of the earth.
Although there are a lot of action scenes in the
trailer this story, set in the ‘near future’, is thoughtful and cerebral and
has questions to ask about a sense of self and indeed the nature of humanity.
There are strong religious undertones in some of the dialogue which suggests
the future may be more theocratic than secular, and this adds a particular
resonance to a son atoning for the sins of the father by sacrificing himself
for the good of mankind.
There are clear influences from the likes of Lem’s
Solaris or Conrad’s Heart of Darkness in the way Gray tells his story. There is
much inner monologue which can be the kiss of death in some films but here
Pitt’s musings are quietly seductive and draw you into the story.
The second half of the film is a little more
action-packed than the first and there are one or two sequences – such as the
Moon pirates or a mysterious mayday call – that look like they might be going down the
route of a larger conspiracy theory. Is someone trying to thwart the mission? However Gray eschews all of this stuff in
favour of Pitt’s personal journey of discovery as he searches for empathy, meaning, and opening up to emotion.
I’ll concede that some might find this a little
pretentious but it resonated with me and I had no issues with it. The film is a
little slow in places but Hoyte van Hoytema’s stunning cinematography creates an
immersive experience which is augmented by Max Richter’s ethereal score.
The cast it littered with big name support –
Donald Sutherland, Ruth Negga, Liv Tyler, Natasha Lyonne for example – but this
is Pitt’s film. I cannot imagine any other actor who can pack so much nuance
and meaning into an apparently expressionless face.The camera has always loved Pitt, now in his maturity it adores him. Pitt’s close-ups dominate
this film but they are endlessly fascinating, unlike George Clooney’s in the
most recent version of Solaris (2002) which are just bland.
This may not be everyone’s cup of tea but I found Ad
Astra utterly compelling, even with the space monkeys, and I was absorbed
from first to last.
And, who knows, with this and Once Upon a
Time…in Hollywood, it could be Brad Pitt’s year after all.
