Matt Erlacher

Ad Astra is a meaningful, well-crafted story that reminds us of the growing gap between real cinematic drama and the low-brow, commercial superhero noise we are inundated with monthly from Hollywood. For me, this was the best of both worlds; I love life-threatening sci-fi action and a really good story. I immediately recognized the split stories between the external action of the secret mission into the outer solar system to solve a mystery and deal with an apparent solar system-wide terrorist action, and Pitt's character's internal mission to come to terms with his father. I found it to be exciting, emotionally engrossing, and satisfyingly sad in the win/lose ending. I recommend this movie to all serious movie-goers not seeking to be merely entertained, but to be moved by an interesting story about people, technology, and the empty spaces we let fill our lives.