Ad Astra 2019

     Astronaut Roy McBride undertakes a mission across an unforgiving solar system.   He wants to uncover the truth about his missing father.  His father had a doomed expedition that may threaten the universe 30 years later.  Roy’s journey could uncover secrets that challenge the nature of human existence and our place in the cosmos?

     Space travel is just the setting for this film.  It is also the emotional odyssey of a man who’s trying to make peace with his conflicted feelings about his father.  Major Roy McBride is an admirable man, courageous, calm and thoughtful.  He is living in a future with race, gender and age having equal professional footing.  There are gun battles, moon battles with explosions, solar flares, an animal attack and characters die.  Much of the sound is muted through the quiet of a spacesuit.  This is like a psychological chess game.  3 1/2* (I liked this movie)    

123 min, Adventure directed and written by James Gray and also written by Ethan Gross with Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Donald Sutherland, Kimberly Elise, Loren Dean, Donnie Keshawarz, Sean Blakemore, Bobby Nish, LisaGay Hamilton, John Finn, John Ortiz, Freda Foh Shen, Kayla Adams, Ravi Kapoor.

Note:  Imdb 6.6 out of 10 with 173,745 reviews, Roger Ebert 4* Brian Tallerico, Rotten Tomatoes 84% with 368 critics 40% with 10,262 audience scores, RollingStone 4* out of 5* Peter Travers, The Guardian 3* out of 5* Mark Kermode, Common Sense Media Tara McNamara, 13+ age, 3* positive messages, 3* role models, 3* violence, 1* sex, 3* language, 2* consumerism, 1* drinking drugs & smoking.

Special Note:  The title means to the stars in Latin.  It is often used as a shorthand for Per Aspera Ad Astra (through hardships to the stars).  Director James Gray had to compromise with the studio on the ending.  Even with a major star/producer Brad Pitt, they still struggled for years to get this film completed.  Tommy Lee Jones seems very old but he is 16 years older than Brad Pitt.  The proposed engine used by Roy’s craft is a theoretical electric propulsion engine.  This explains how the craft is able to travel to Neptune without the need for fuel because the fuel is provided by solar arrays.