By Susan Granger
Special to WestportNow
Anyone ready for philosophical science-fiction?
Let’s start with the title “Ad Astra.” In Latin, it means “to the stars,” but the entire phrase is “Ad Astra Per Aspera,” meaning “to the stars through hardships.”
Set in an unspecified future when interplanetary travel is common, the constant search for intelligent life in the outer reaches of the solar system continues.
Under top-secret orders from Spacecom, cool, collected Major Roy McBride (Brad Pitt), whose pulse never exceeds 80 beats per minute, is dispatched to Neptune to find his astronaut father, H. Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones), an American hero thought to have died many years ago, but now suspected to be behind power surges that endanger Earth.
“Like I have a choice,” Roy dutifully mutters. “We go to work. We do our jobs. Then it’s over.” Which may explain Roy’s long estrangement from his wife Eve (Liv Tyler).
And so his epic journey into the galaxy begins — from Earth to the Moon, onto Mars, then Neptune, accompanied by his father’s now-retired colleague Thomas Pruitt (Donald Sutherland) on the ill-fated Lima Project.
Over-colonized, Moon-dwellers battle urban congestion and pirates abound, smashing their moon rovers into unsuspecting astronauts. Then it’s onto Mars, where Roy’s stoic persistence is questioned by Helen Lantros (Ruth Negga), who teaches him about the value of connectivity in the moment.
Writer/director James Gray (“The Lost City of Z”), collaborating with co-screenwriter Ethan Gross and cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema (“Dunkirk”), explores the elusive father/son dynamic, veering from abandonment to longing, from fear to love, following a tight three-act structure with cerebral restraint and grace.
“We wanted to investigate the inability to connect with others, and the self-protection mechanisms one builds up that keep us from really being open,” Pitt says, explaining the existential loneliness of Roy McBride.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Ad Astra” is an exquisite 8, boldly challenging the tone and rhythm of outer-space exploration.
Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman’s biographical music documentary “Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice” is particularly timely because she has been chosen as one of the 2019 Kennedy Center honorees.
“Linda could literally sing anything!” marvels Dolly Parton, admiring her eclecticism.
Narrated by Ronstadt, it chronicles her childhood in Tucson, Arizona, where her father was of Mexican/German descent, and she witnessed racial discrimination and prejudice- hence her 1987 album of traditional Mariachi music: “Canciones de Mi Padre.”
From there, it traces her move to Los Angeles and rise to fame & fortune in the ‘70s, filled with remembrances from friends and colleagues like Parton, Karla Bonoff, Jackson Browne, Cameron Crowe, David Geffen, Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Raitt and members of the Eagles, which was formed from Ronstadt’s touring band.
There are television interviews, interspersed with earthy, sexy concert footage, covering folk, pop, country, operetta, the Great American Songbook and rock: “People would think I was trying to remake myself, but I never invented myself in the first place,” she says.
When she tired of pop music, she tackled Gilbert & Sullivan, co-starring with Kevin Kline in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of “The Pirates of Penzance,” later adapted on film.
Singer/songwriter J.D. Souther recalls their beach-house relationship and Ronstadt’s shown singing “My Boyfriend’s Back” at a California Gov. Jerry Brown fundraiser, back when a politician dating a rock-star made headlines.
Now 73, the 10-time Grammy winner retired from performing in 2009 because of Parkinson’s disease. Still outspoken, when she learned that she would receive the Kennedy Center Honors in December, Ronstadt said she hoped President Donald Trump would not attend, declaring, “I don’t want to be in the same room with him.”
Unfortunately, filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (“Lovelace,” “The Times of Harvey Milk,” “The Celluloid Closet”) never sit down to candidly discuss Rondstadt’s life with the singer herself. Instead, there are clips and snips but no definitive insight.
On the Granger Gauge, “Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice” is a stirring 7. Enjoy!
“Abominable,” a DreamWorks Animation cross-culture coproduction with Shanghai-based Pearl Studio, is obviously designed to appeal to family-friendly audiences in the ever-growing Far East market.
In China, a young, white-furred, blue-eyed yeti escapes from the clutches of a billionaire explorer/wild animal collector, Mr. Burnish (voiced Eddie Izzard), and hides on a rooftop where he recognizes a billboard advertising trips to Mt. Everest.
He’s discovered by teenage Yi (voiced by Chloe Bennet), a scrappy tomboy/violin prodigy who yearns to travel and uses the rooftop as her hideaway. She lives in an apartment below with her strict, widowed mother (voiced by Michelle Wong) and feisty, dumpling-making grandmother (voiced by Tsai Chin).
Soon, Yi and two pals — nerdy basketball-enthusiast Peng (voiced by Albert Tsai) and appearance-obsessed, med-school cousin Jin (voiced by Tenzing Norgay Trainor, whose real-life Shera grandfather guided Sir Edmund Hillary up Mt. Everest) — embark on a mission to return the yeti, whom they call ‘Everest,’ to his family and rightful home in the Himalayas.
Traveling from the streets of Shanghai across the Gobi Desert to Sichuan’s Leshan Giant Buddha (233-ft. tall carved in a cliffside during the Tang dynasty), they’re doggedly pursued by Dr. Zara (voiced by Sarah Paulson), a British zoologist working for entrepreneurial Burnish, who is determined to prove that the yeti is not a mythical beast.
Along the way, Everest demonstrates some surprising, nature-connected magical powers which he summons with a low, rumbling hum that sounds like Mongolian throat singers.
Writer/director Jill Culton fills the familiar, formulaic narrative with plenty of physical humor, amusing one-liners, imaginative imagery and Rupert Gregson-Williams’ ethereal music, highlighted by Coldplay’s “Fix You.”
NOTE: Jill Culton was the first female director to helm a full-length, computer-animated, major-studio feature (“Open Season”) and now achieves another ‘first,’ featuring a female protagonist.
On the Granger Gauge, “Abominable” is a serviceable, sweetly simplistic 6, introducing a fuzzy friend that’s adorable, not abominable.
(Editor’s Note: Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has been on radio/television as an anchorwoman and movie/drama critic for many years. See her reviews at www.susangranger.com.)
