Brad Pitt's journey to Neptune is intentionally emotionless in James Gray's Ad Astra, a stunning tale of identity, self-discovery and rebirth.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 30, 2023

With a subtle yet powerful performance, Brad Pitt carries the whole story to safe harbor with tremendous help from the eyegasmic visuals. Very well-shot, well-edited, with an immersive score, and gorgeous cinematography.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Jul 24, 2023

Ad Astra showcases the struggle of looking into the abyss and explores how Roy’s father succumbed to it, and if Roy will suffer that same fate. This is where Ad Astra finds its strength.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Aug 22, 2022

Ad Astra is as much about the void we create in our personal lives as it’s about space travel; we are more honest with complete strangers than we are with ourselves and the ones we love.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 20, 2022

(Gray) dazzles through his audacious uses of light, color and physics. His penetrating close-ups are just as compelling, never losing sight of the human element.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 19, 2022

Ad Astra is rooted in a human drama that unravels somewhere between Earth and the rings of Neptune, two stations as distant as the storys father and son.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 23, 2022

Episode 49: Hustlers / Ad Astra / Two Lovers / ALTIPLANO

Full Review | Original Score: 88/100 | Oct 18, 2021

I loved that it really centered on Brad Pitt's character, and his journey... I personally think [Tommy Lee Jones] is a little bit wasted.

Full Review | Sep 20, 2021

While on a quest to discover other intelligent beings in this galaxy, Ad Astra instead tells us that there are still plenty of discoveries to be made in the people around us.

Full Review | Sep 5, 2021

...the build up is more effective that the take-away, which isn't quite as rich or developed as the quest...

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 13, 2021

A selfish story about selfishness.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 30, 2021

It's thrilling, adventurous and beautiful to look at, while also provoking deep philosophical and emotional questions in viewers along the way.

Full Review | Jul 26, 2021

Nary an emotive wince did Ad Astra wring from me with its tale of paternal woes writ interplanetary. Not a tear was jerked -- they all froze in their ducts like ice.

Full Review | Jul 2, 2021

Ad Astra is first-person cinema at its finest: an intimate, insular study of tortured masculinity, pulsating with an air of gentle melancholy that tugs at the heartstrings.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jun 25, 2021

Ad Astra is visually stunning as well as emotionally devastating.

Full Review | Original Score: 10 | Jun 24, 2021

A sci-fi masterpiece as thought-provoking as it entertaining.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 29, 2021

It's worth watching, especially if you enjoy a space film, but it just doesn't quite add up to a perfect cinematic equation.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 25, 2021

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.

Full Review | Feb 17, 2021

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

Full Review | Feb 6, 2021

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.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Feb 5, 2021