{"id":5683,"date":"2020-02-21T10:06:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-21T15:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/?p=5683"},"modified":"2022-10-26T10:21:57","modified_gmt":"2022-10-26T14:21:57","slug":"brad-pitt-works-out-his-daddy-issues-in-space-in-ad-astra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/brad-pitt-works-out-his-daddy-issues-in-space-in-ad-astra\/","title":{"rendered":"Brad Pitt works out his daddy issues in space, in Ad Astra"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Maybe this isn’t fair, but I couldn’t help but associate Ad Astra<\/em> with Joker<\/em>. If Joker<\/em> is a shallow remix of Taxi Driver<\/em> and King of Comedy<\/em>, Ad Astra<\/em> is a bland smoothie of Solaris<\/a><\/em> and Apocalypse Now<\/em>, with a cavalcade of stars you may remember from Space Cowboys<\/em> and Armageddon<\/em>. I half expected Harrison Ford to appear, standing in a corner, creepily ordering Brad Pitt to “terminate, with extreme prejudice” — so it’s more Apocalypse Now<\/em> than 2001: A Space Odyssey<\/a><\/em>, which at least had the decency to have jokes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Brad
Brad Pitt has a few issues to work out before he can open his heart to Liv Tyler.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But really, Ad Astra<\/em> is merely the story of an emotionally repressed mope (Brad Pitt<\/a>), working through his daddy issues by haphazardly murdering a bunch of people just like his dad (Tommy Lee Jones<\/a>) did — as if they were mere bureaucratic red tape stopping the only person in the universe that can save the universe from saving the universe — and then, having saved the universe, finally becoming ready to open his heart to Liv Tyler<\/a>. Anybody out there have any empathy for someone who can’t open their heart to Liv Tyler? Pure fiction!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And as for its pseudo-sciencey verisimilitude, somewhere, Kim Stanley Robinson<\/a> is banging his head against his writing desk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maybe this isn’t fair, but I couldn’t help but associate Ad Astra with Joker. If Joker is a shallow remix of Taxi Driver and King of Comedy, Ad Astra is a bland smoothie of Solaris and Apocalypse Now, with a cavalcade of stars you may remember from Space Cowboys and Armageddon. I half expected Harrison […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,2],"tags":[1872,140,1102,1923,1095,85],"class_list":["post-5683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2-stars","category-movies","tag-1872","tag-brad-pitt","tag-harrison-ford","tag-kim-stanley-robinson","tag-liv-tyler","tag-science-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/ad-astra.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa9lhB-1tF","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":728,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/the-assassination-of-jesse-james-by-the-coward-robert-ford\/","url_meta":{"origin":5683,"position":0},"title":"Roger Deakins is the true star of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"March 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Had I seen The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford earlier, I might have included it among my Most Disappointing Films of 2007. Certainly not because it's \"bad,\" for could I make a better movie myself? Could I make a movie at all? And who appointed me\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "3 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/assassination-of-jesse-james-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/assassination-of-jesse-james-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/assassination-of-jesse-james-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/assassination-of-jesse-james-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/assassination-of-jesse-james-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1222,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/burn-after-reading\/","url_meta":{"origin":5683,"position":1},"title":"The Coen Brothers confound expectations, as usual, with Burn After Reading","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"October 12, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Although every Coen Brothers film is unmistakably theirs alone (can the Auteur Theory apply to more than one person at once?), Joel and Ethan have a reputation for rarely making the films audiences want or expect from them at any given time. Clooney and McDormand give this movie two thumbs\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "3 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/burn-after-reading-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/burn-after-reading-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/burn-after-reading-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/burn-after-reading-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/burn-after-reading-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1380,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/curious-case-of-benjamin-button\/","url_meta":{"origin":5683,"position":2},"title":"Brad Pitt Lives Life in Reverse in David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"January 9, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This blogger is slowly cooling on former favorite David Fincher. His underrated first feature Alien3 is highly compromised, but easily the next most thematically interesting entry in the Alien franchise (after, of course, Ridley Scott's rich original). Se7en is one of the most gut-wrenchingly disturbing movies ever made, notable for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"2 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/2-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/curious-case-of-benjamin-button-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/curious-case-of-benjamin-button-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/curious-case-of-benjamin-button-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/curious-case-of-benjamin-button-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/curious-case-of-benjamin-button-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5763,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/ridley-scott-and-cormac-mccarthy-make-an-odd-couple-in-the-counselor\/","url_meta":{"origin":5683,"position":3},"title":"Ridley Scott and Cormac McCarthy make an odd couple in The Counselor","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"October 25, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Cormac McCarthy and Ridley Scott were bound to be an odd couple in any case. All the richly composed and poetic dialogue in the world doesn't disguise the fact The Counselor is basically a grimy, scuzzy, sleazy, feel-bad potboiler. There is an element of pulp to several of McCarthy's novels,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"2 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/2-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Cameron Diaz, Brad Pitt, Penelope Cruz in The Counselor","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/counselor.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/counselor.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/counselor.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/counselor.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/counselor.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8253,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/damien-chazelles-babylon-is-not-very-loving-as-love-letters-go\/","url_meta":{"origin":5683,"position":4},"title":"Damien Chazelle’s Babylon is not very loving, as love letters go","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"March 26, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Like most filmmakers and movie buffs, Babylon director Damien Chazelle would appear to have mixed feelings about Hollywood.","rel":"","context":"In "1 Star"","block_context":{"text":"1 Star","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/1-star\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Babylon","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/babylon.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/babylon.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/babylon.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/babylon.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/babylon.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3617,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/tree-of-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":5683,"position":5},"title":"Sad Dinosaurs: Calling Bullshit on Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"April 30, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"As a public service, I will now summarize all 2 hours and 19 minutes of Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life for you: My mommy was pretty, my daddy was mean, sometimes kids die, I inhaled too much DDT, and it makes me so sad. 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