Trailer Alert: James Gray's space epic "Ad Astra"

It's no secret that I greatly admire James Gray's The Lost City of Z. So his upcoming operatic space drama Ad Astra has been of great interest to me. While the first trailer certainly was intriguing, the second trailer (which 20th Century Fox released today) works like gangbusters. Tonally, it fits more in the Gray cinematic canon -- i.e. it's introspective, it has stirring orchestral music and focuses on another father-son dynamic. Think about it. Joaquin Phoenix felt an obligation to do the right thing for his cop father Robert Duvall in We Own The Night. Phoenix also felt an obligation to keep his father's dry cleaning business alive -- and therefore making his social and romantic life impotent -- in Two Lovers. In The Lost City of Z, a final father-son exploration back into South America proves tragic. And now Ad Astra stars Brad Pitt as an astronaut who goes looking for his estranged astronaut father (Tommy Lee Jones) in deep space.

For me, this trailer gets everything about Gray's cinema just right. It's mysterious, beautiful, dark, surprising and deeply human. Ad Astra also stars Ruth Negga, Liv Tyler and Donald Sutherland.

Watch out for this one.