Ad Astra (2019)

Ad Astra updates the 2001 style of glum quiet space stories with commercialised near-future moon bases giving way to a lonely frontier, though here the bleakness is punctuated by a few weirdly fun action scenes. Ever wanted to see a car chase in moon buggies or a knife fight in zero-G? This follows director James Gray’s previous The Lost City Of Z, a grim take on the exploration adventure story that still had adventure-y bits. The result is a strange mix, and kind of a downer. (Ignatiy Vishnevetsky at the A.V. Club liked it more than I did.) But it’s certainly interesting. And that moon buggy chase.