The Wall Street Journal - 20.09.2019

A12| Friday, September 20, 2019 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

time a friend succeeds, something

in me dies.” Will Lola have to con-

tend with bench envy?

Too early to tell, of course, but

it seems fertile ground. Lola and

her erstwhile colleague in the DA’s

office, Mark Callan (Wilson

Bethel), begin the day on good

terms. Their repartee is warmly

abrasive, indicating a longtime

friendship; any chance at romance

between them would seem to have

expired some years before. But

they’re chums.

What will happen when Lola

gives Mark an unfavorable ruling,

SEASONS CHANGE.TV seasons
change. And some things never
change, including TV’s fascination
with the courtroom.
“All Rise,” which stars Simone
Missick (“Luke Cage”) as a newly
appointed Superior Court judge in
Los Angeles, is all about change—
at least according to the show’s
promotional materials, which pres-
ent it as a response to systemic
gender and racial disparities in the
criminal justice system, the failure
of judicial appointments to reflect
demographic shifts in America,
etc. etc.
What the show turns out to be,
judging by the first installment
anyway, is a better-than-average
light drama, sans stridency, with a
strong cast and considerable po-
tential for exploring themes of
substance—while still maintaining
the breathtaking pace of the first
episode, during which viewers may
have no idea who’s who, and
through no fault of their own.
The centerpiece is Lola Carmi-
chael (Ms. Missick), whom we
meet on her first day in her new
job—the only African-American
among her new colleagues. The
only other woman is the supervi-
sory judge, Lisa Benner (Marg Hel-

as is bound to happen? Mark al-

ready has a rather loose relation-

ship with ethics: In finessing a case

against a defendant named Robbie

Brooks (George Basil), who was

caught on camera during a robbery

and has grown a beard to “fool” the

jury, Mark crosses a few lines. Dis-

barment proceedings seem only a

few steps away. So does the disillu-

sionment of public defender Emily

Lopez (Jessica Camacho), who’s be-

ing wooed by court officer Luke

Watkins (J. Alex Brinson).

Will Lola’s liberal tendencies

make her an enemy of her

friends—or of the police depart-

ment, as is indicated in episode 1?

Will Lola’s independence and in-

tegrity make her an enemy of Lisa,

who clearly knows how to play the

courthouse game? Perhaps most

importantly, will she make an en-

emy of her constitutionally insub-

ordinate judicial assistant, Sherri

Kansky (Ruthie Ann Miles), who

acts as if Lola works for her? The

viewer may be curious enough to

stick around and find out.

All Rise

Begins Monday, 9 p.m., CBS

Dorothy Rabinowitz is on vacation.

genberger), who’s tough

to read—by Lola or the

viewer. Lisa is meant to

be Lola’s Virgil in the

politically byzantine

hellhole of the L.A.

courts and as regards

the “proper” conduct of

someone in Lola’s new

position: She should not,

for instance, be barging

into the wrong court-

room and chastising a

white court officer for

bringing a Latina sus-

pect in for arraignment

when said suspect is

wearing no pants. What

might happen—and

does—is that said court

officer will mutter some-

thing about “lowlifes

taking over the city,”

draw his gun and fire at

the judge behind the

bench. Frankly, the

whole scene is worse than juve-

nile.

But among the more adult

themes “All Rise” seems poised to

explore is: What happens to per-

sonal relationships when the work

relationship changes? As Gore

Vidal once (allegedly) said, “Every

CBS

Simone Missick stars as a newly appointed judge in the Los Angeles County court system.

TELEVISION REVIEW| JOHN ANDERSON

‘All Rise’: A New Judge Takes Her Seat on the Bench

LIFE & ARTS

Y

ou can’t really out-Ku-
brick Kubrick, but di-
rector James Gray
gives it a shot with the
trippily unnerving “Ad
Astra” —“to the stars,”
as Virgil put it. Mr. Gray is carving
his own space out of space, so to
speak, and provides startling new
ways of seeing the knowable uni-
verse. But there’s also a “2001”-ish
dread to “Ad Astra,” a creep-show
quality that arises not just from the
eeriness of events, but from having
the human being’s place in the cos-
mos rendered so insignificant, and
solitary.
Few movie heroes are as solitary
as Roy McBride (Brad Pitt), an
overachieving astronaut whose fa-
ther, Clifford (Tommy Lee Jones),
was—and perhaps is—the most fa-
mous American space explorer, a
combination Chuck Yeager, Neil
Armstrong and Flash Gordon.
Nearly three decades earlier (the

film is set in “the near future”), he

disappeared on a mission to con-

tact extraterrestrial life, which is

presumed to exist, judging by the

opening titles—which also suggest

that such a belief is rooted in des-

peration about the state of life on

Earth, and a hope that solutions

might be found elsewhere.

There is a hallucinogenic opening

sequence during which all this is

sketchily and portentously ex-

plained, but the first real action

takes place on the International

Space Antenna, which sends signals

skyward and is stationed near the

ceiling of Earth’s atmosphere. When

the massive antenna is struck by an

electrical storm coming from an un-

known source in space, Roy—whose

heart rate, someone notes, has never

risen above 80 BPM—plummets to

earth with preternatural cool, keep-

ing his head even as shrapnel from

above is punching holes in his para-

chute.

Still, Roy is unnerved by what

his superiors ask him to do next:

record a message that will be

beamed toward Neptune, Clifford’s

presumed destination and the

source of the destructive impulses.

Is Clifford alive? Does he need

help? What can be done? That the

elder McBride is somehow respon-

sible for the attacks is the unspo-

ken message, but much is unspoken

in “Ad Astra” (the screenplay is by

Mr. Gray and Ethan Gross): Why

doesn’t Space Com quite trust Roy?

And why doesn’t Roy trust Space

Com? Perhaps because Roy thinks

the government was responsible

for his fatherless childhood. And

that if Clifford is alive it wants to

current “Once Upon a Time in Hol-

lywood,” he could and should be a

double Oscar nominee next year. If

he’s not, it doesn’t mean his per-

formance in “Ad Astra” isn’t an

epic one.

And what of the traveler to Nep-

tune? In his last known transmis-

sion, Clifford talked of seeing the

face of the Almighty and of an in-

evitable reunion “in exultation”

with his alien brothers and sisters.

He’s mad, and his idea of God as a

destination is just one of the symp-

toms. But the real issue is ego,

which has driven the man to virtu-

ally widow his wife and orphan a

son who has been left unmoored

and unable to connect with any-

thing but a computer. (Liv Tyler

materializes throughout the film as

Roy’s estranged wife.) All of which

may strike some viewers as bibli-

cal, Shakespearean and/or Greek.

It’s certainly unforgettable.

Mr. Anderson is a Journal TV critic.

Joe Morgenstern is on vacation.

kill him again.

“Ad Astra” will remind viewers

of other recent and very rumina-

tive space movies, including “Grav-

ity,” “Moon” and “First Man.” But

where those films looked out, “Ad

Astra” looks in—and the way it

does so is the signature of the film

and the heart of Mr. Pitt’s perfor-

mance. After each crisis or mission

or irregular incident, Roy is sub-

jected to a “psych eval,” an interro-

gation by computer during which

he has to explain his feelings in a

manner that convinces the pro-

gram he’s being honest with it. And

with himself. Has he found a way

to game the software? No one will

think so: The responses are too na-

ked and deep, the effort too pain-

ful. Roy’s ego has been scoured in a

way that suggests psychoanalysis

as a journey into deepest space.

To lavish too much praise on Mr.

Pitt’s performance would be to

somehow suggest he isn’t already

among the best actors on screen.

He is. Between this film and the

BYJOHNANDERSON

An astronaut searches

for answers about his

father’s disappearance

on a mission to Neptune

TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX (3)

FILM REVIEW

‘Ad Astra’:

Up There

Solo

Brad Pitt stars in this sci-fi look at the

loneliness and isolation of space

Donald Sutherland, Brad Pitt and Sean Blakemore, left; Mr. Pitt as Roy

McBride, above; and a scene from James Gray’s ‘Ad Astra,’ top