New Jersey Stage Issue 63 | Page 23

SHARE BUTTON Ad Astra Steven Spielberg has long main- tained that had he made Close Encounters of the Third Kind af- ter marrying and having kids, it would have ended very differ- ently. After becoming a family man, Spielberg balked at the idea that a father and husband would walk away from his family and NJ STAGE - ISSUE 63 by Eric Hillis take a ride off into the great un- known with a bunch of aliens. Has writer/director James Gray be- come a family man in the short time between his previous movie, 2016’s The Lost City of Z, and his latest, Ad Astra? His new film plays like something of a thematic rejoinder to his last one. INDEX NEXT ARTICLE 23