"Ad Astra" and "I Lost My Body"

James Gray's space epic, "Ad Astra," is a curious film. At a distance, it looks like a big budget blockbuster, starring Brad Pitt and featuring plenty of gorgeous production design and expensive special effects to build an impressive vision of the spacefaring future. Up close, however, it turns out to be a very intimate examination of a troubled father-son relationship in the same vein as James Gray's previous work. More than any of the other recent films set in space, "Ad Astra" recalls "2001: A Space Odyssey" with its often contemplative tone, slow pace, few characters, and focus on exploration.

Some time in the indeterminate future, mankind has expanded its presence to the moon and Mars. Brad Pitt plays Roy McBride, son of famed astronaut Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones), who set out on a mission to find extraterrestrial life decades ago and never returned. Now destructive power surges are threatening Earth, and hae been traced to the previous mission. Roy is sent out to the far reaches of the solar system to investigate, and discover what happened to his father. We see each step of the eventful journey from Roy's POV, often with voice over narration providing his internal monologue. There are brief encounters with other characters, like a Martian administrator played by Ruth Negga and a fellow astronaut played by Donald Sutherland. Roy's wife Eve (Liv Tyler) is only glimpsed briefly in hallucinatory flashes.

I'm astounded that James Gray got this film made. It looks absolutely fantastic, thanks in no small part to cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, and provides a good number of thrills and chills. However, at its heart, "Ad Astra" is a minimalist, unconventional drama that isn't remotely concerned with things like a coherent plot or character development. It reminds me more of "Drive" than "Gravity," as its chief concerns are with sustaining moody sensory pleasures and an atmosphere of existential melancholy. I enjoyed the film very much for its commitment to a singular vision, but at the same time I expect that mainstream audiences will have little tolerance for its Malickian style and an ending that provides plenty of resolution, but no real explanations.

A movie that is completely different, but sits on a similar wavelength, is French animated feature "I Lost My Body." It's a great example of animation being able to do what live action cannot, in this case blurring the lines between fantasy and reality in such a way that a totally fantastical premise can be taken at face value. Here, we follow the adventures of a disembodied hand as it tries to get back to its body, one belonging to a young man named Naofel (Dev Patel in the English dub). The hand's harrowing journey is intercut with flashbacks to Naofel's life as a Paris delivery boy, his attempts to woo a girl named Gabrielle (Alia Shawkat), and the sequence of events that led to the tragic dismemberment.

The scenes featuring the hand are staged like an action adventure film, with some moments bordering on horror, as the lost appendage makes its way through the scummier parts of Paris and has run-ins with all manner of urban dangers. The flashbacks, however, tell a sad, delicate story of loss and grief with wonderful sensitivity. Jérémy Clapin directed and co-wrote with Guillaume Laurant, based on Laurant's novel. The style of animation combines hand-drawn, fairly realistic depictions of human beings and limbs with a few discreet CGI elements, downplaying the fantasy elements. The segments shown from the POV of the hand are especially impressive, taking in the little details of a seemingly mundane, everyday life.

"I Lost My Body" is very short, running a scant 81 minutes, but it isn't slight in the least. I love the way the narrative unfolds, the way Naofel and Gabrielle's first conversation plays out, and the use of the sound recording equipment as a recurring element. Parents should be warned that it tackles adult themes and is just violent enough to be disturbing, though it stops short of being really graphic. It also features , strangely, one of the most uplifting endings I've seen all year. Along with "Klaus," Netflix is really hitting the mark this season with its animated offerings. Let's hope this is the start of a trend.
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