He’s been nominated multiple times, and Brad Pitt finally won his acting Academy Award in 2020 for Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.
The year prior, Quentin Tarantino‘s western comedy wasn’t the only acclaimed film starring Pitt, now 62. His more leading turn in 2019 came with Ad Astra, which just dropped on Netflix in case fans of the A-lister haven’t seen it yet.
The sci-fi adventure film was directed by James Gray, who’s been making headlines this awards season as his latest feature Paper Tiger makes the festival rounds. Starring Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller, the New York-set drama premiered at Cannes and has earned some Oscar buzz since.
Going back seven years, Gray, 57, helmed another star-studded project — but in a wildly different genre. Pitt stars in Ad Astra (the title meaning “to the stars”) alongside Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga and Donald Sutherland.
The emotionally charged sci-fi film holds an impressive 83% average critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes — and if you’re thinking, “I’ve seen much better percentages on the website,” bear in mind that this Tomatometer is based on a whopping 397 verified critic reviews. When was the last time you saw a movie gather that many on the platform?
Here’s Rotten Tomatoes’ offered synopsis of Ad Astra: “Thirty years ago, Clifford McBride (Jones) led a voyage into deep space, but the ship and crew were never heard from again. Now his son (Pitt) — a fearless astronaut — must embark on a daring mission to Neptune to uncover the truth about his missing father and a mysterious power surge that threatens the stability of the universe.”
James Gray’s Paper Tiger Premieres at NYFF
Johansson, 41, who stars in Gray’s new movie, had to skip their Cannes Film Festival premiere earlier this year, but she reunited with her co-stars at the recent New York Film Festival screening. Find out more here.