★★★
The ongoing ripples of Alfonso Cuarón’s stunning, technologically unprecedented, success with 2013 Oscar dominee Gravity pummel through James Gray’s latest thought provoker. Breathtaking vistas expand across the picture’s wide screen, with pitch perfect photorealism – boosted by bona fide moon surface footage in some scenes – captured on sumptuously grainy 35mm film. Amid the deep space in which Ad Astra is set, Gray has lens-eyes only for his leading man. Intense close ups force viewers right into the depressive depths of Brad Pitt’s fully engaged eyes, seeking answers, hope, resolution even, but finding despair alone. It’s a pity Gray and co-writer Ethan Gross’ arduously moribund narration rarely shuts up long enough to let us appreciate the fact.
The Film Blog 