'Ad Astra' shoots for the stars, only occasionally stumbles
by Jacob Pettyjohn Brad Pitt in space. If that doesn’t elicit at least the slightest amount of interest in your movie-going mind, then you may need a psychological evaluation. This is just in order to ensure that you aren’t as emotionally repressed and supposedly vacant as Brad Pitt’s character in James Gray’s ambitious, near-masterpiece Ad Astra. The few things holding this back from achieving masterpiece-level status are some abundantly clear studio mandates that neuter the film’s potential intellectual potency and thought provocation, but it still deserves to be seen on the big screen.