“Ad astra,” the new film by James Gray, is more meditation than story. The title (one half of the latin phrase “per aspera ad astra” or “through hardships to the stars”) is apt given the amount of time travel and the fascinating hardware that allows it, though the tale meanders, causing some confusion. With various stellar transportation modes, it takes us from one distant planet to the next ... more >
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Brad Pitt sets off in search of a father in mesmerizing “Ad Astra”
The universe is big, lest we forget
Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones and Ruth Negga
Directed by James Gray
Two Lovers
A favorite at this year's Cannes Festival
Joaquin Phoenix, Gwyneth Paltrow and Vinessa Shaw
Directed by James Gray
This year's James Gray vintage (We Own The Night was his last film before this) is called Two Lovers and stars Joaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow. Set in New York City's outer boroughs again and told in near-documentary style and with a barebones soundtrack, Two Lovers lets Gray go at the heart of his own style as filmmaker, it seems. This time around he's got nothing to prove. The most ... more >
We Own the Night
I don't need any more guns in my life, that's for sure
Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg and Eva Mendes
Directed by James Gray
At the Cannes Festival sometimes things can turn violent between journalists. Or at least that's what I feared upon exiting the Debussy theatre this past May after a press screening of James Gray's We Own the Night, which has its commercial release later this October. The film got copiously booed as end credits rolled--in my opinion because of its formulaic zeal, when you see the final scene, ... more >