Movies like Ad Astra and The Grey? Genre pieces that explore complex questions.

The Grey and Ad Astra are both, on the surface, genre pieces that you might not expect to have much depth. Most people expected The Grey to be "Taken with wolves," and Ad Astra was sold as a standard, if a bit arthouse, space exploration movie.

Yet both deal with pretty heavy (and similar) themes. They are both essentially about a man pitted against the most extremes of nature, and the psychological effects of venturing into the unknown. On their journey, they explore things like what it means to be a man, how to deal with aging and our own mortality, grappling with father issues, and an overall existentialist/nihilist view of life. These are all persistent issues for me, and I appreciate works of art that explore them.

Any suggestions for movies that fit the bill? I'm open to recommendations that don't totally fit the criteria but might align with some of these ideas, e.g. Interstellar, Arrival, Contact (weird that there are so many space movies like this).

Submitted August 04, 2020 at 02:32AM by KlaatuBrute https://ift.tt/2D6AZRy