Ad Astra

Brad Pitt is nothing short of phenomenal in this remarkable, poignant and visually arresting film from James Gray.

There's larger social commentary here, but the root of the drama is about a man learning to embrace the emotions he's kept buried for years.

For most of its running time, Ad Astra amounts to a rather somber and sterile two-hour orbit.

The film's Latin title means "to the stars." But the satisfactions of James Gray's project lie in a special branch of astronomy-not the study of planets, but of the supernova at the center of "Ad Astra": Brad Pitt.

It's a very somber and moody film. The atmosphere is achieved beautifully.

McBride is a man living without feeling, and Pitt's performance is beautifully restrained, expressing whole continents of emotion with the furrow of an eyebrow.

Ad Astra is an extraordinary film that contains a vision for the future that's both appealing and cautionary, as well as a technical wizardry that makes our solar system feel reachable and wondrous at the same time.

It certainly has something to say. I just wish it hadn't said it so very loudly.

Given the effectiveness of Gray's more genre-y moments ,his insistence on paring his stories down to a kind of quietly masculine anguish feels perverse.

Pitt, in a largely non-verbal performance save for copious voiceover, shows his emotions through the cracks, allowing the character to reveal himself in the contemplative but compellingly unsettling way.