Project Hail Mary (2026) — The Long Boxd Review

A Buddy Comedy in Space!

Source: Letterboxd

Hopeful Ryan Gosling ✅ Lord and Miller’s comedic direction ✅ Rocky, our cute little mascot and savior ✅ The power of humanity ✅ Science being taken seriously ✅

Yeah man, I think this is the good stuff. This is space hopecore — My Letterboxd

Oh look, it’s another space sci-fi book adaptation. We’ve had the Dune series score so well with the Villeneuve direction, and the third part is due to release at the end of the year — for which I am excited. But this is Andy Weir, the author of the other space film that scored pretty well with audiences in 2015, The Martian with Matt Damon and directed by Ridley Scott. Now I actually forgot about that connection so it comes to no surprise that I felt that this film felt similar to that film. They share similarities for sure. A scientist, specifically one that deals with biology and life. A lead character who isn’t very serious but manages to get the job done with a near reckless amount of humor and ingenuity. And a problem that shouldn’t be able to be solved but will be. Also, a great deal of grounding us to Earth by splicing in moments of the Earth team and their understanding of the situation.

At the core of this film is our protagonist, Ryland Gosling. I mean, Ryland Grace, played by Ryan Gosling. A fallen doctor in biology who now teaches science at a K-12 school. The film starts really strong, using the classroom as an exposé into the world they live in. It comes right after a sequence of Grace waking up from cryosleep and bumbling around the ship, seeming to be a big dummy. But, the cut to the classroom proves us that Grace isn’t as stupid as he appears right now. He’s shown to be a good communicator, a solid teacher, and wary of teaching science in a world that is cautious about how much truth there is in science (as exampled by his hesitancy to talk about certain things and delegating that task to the child’s parents). It’s pretty much the same as ours but there’s a special red line, the Petrova Line, in the Solar System that is somewhat weakening the Sun. Big woop. And then Grace is confronted by a leader of a multi-national team of scientists to help understand the Petrova Line. The film then continues on with this flashback, introducing this knowledge to us and reminding present-day Grace with his necessary grounding to get him back to his mission.

At the forefront of this film is Ryan Gosling. He is everything. I’m glad to see him in another happy film, I like Gosling in his smiley era. Now playing a goofy dude who just happens to know some big knowledge is easy enough. But this film has a scattering of delicate moments that need to be aced for the scene to land. And he does it. He gives off a heroic speech, walks off into the dark, and when he turns around we see his tears already formed on his face. Moments of despair that come off genuine. Moments of happiness that made me smile with him. It’s Gosling’s world, this film. And it’s impossible to go about this without mentioning Rocky, our small little rock alien. Now, some book readers would’ve preferred Rocky to be a surprise. But as Gosling said in an interview, like E.T., we need to feature the alien (paraphrasing). And that’s okay that we know that there is a rock alien because what we don’t know is how emotive his lad is. Checking the Letterboxd now, it’s clear to see how effective his character has become throughout the film. We love him.

Now it’s not fair to just endlessly gush about how great the buddy story is between a silly biologist in space and a rock alien who sees only in 3D. Just like in The Martian, the movie is filled with humor. I have to say, until Rocky shows up, the comedy is a little too predictable or ‘marvel-esque’. It’s too silly, it becomes repetitive, and we begin to understand the joke before it happens because the set-up is the same. Grace says one thing and the opposite happens. Or he’s bumbling about and that’s funny. Or he looks at something, gets overwhelmed, and says a one-liner similar to “Nope!”. It’s too easy. But, once Rocky gets introduced and joins the story, the humor changes. Now it’s not up to just Grace to make us laugh, he has a partner who will help him. And it works because Rocky is unknowable to us. Sometimes his alienness is funny. Sometimes it’s the way he doesn’t know things. Sometimes it’s his mistranslations of common English. All of it is how he works with Grace. This is what sells this film. The dynamic between the two of them is the most wholesome part of the story. And it’s ultimately the point. Rocky learns how to hug, and then when they do it later in the film we’re immediately filled with warmth. Rocky learns to do a ‘thumbs-up’ and we’re shown how his wacky understanding of it comes back every time he does it. By the end, the two are true friends and we were there to see this relationship happen. It’s frankly quite beautiful how humanity has that capacity.

Now, maybe it’s because I loved Arrival (2016), but the language barrier was broken way too quickly. I was curious how Grace was able to get Rocky to learn English so fast. It quickly becomes normalized and the two get to talking full sentences with little to no communication gaps as soon as they decide on what voice to give Rocky via the translator program. It’s also apparent that Rocky picks up English and human mannerisms rapidly. Even in the first scene the two meet, Rocky is already starting to understand certain questions or statements that Grace is tossing out haphazardly. That did break my immersion for a bit.

After the bromance, the main feature of the film is the visual spectacle. Most of the film takes place inside a space ship. And I am a sucker for that spacey interiors with retro-futuristic machines and screens everywhere. And there is merit in here as well, using lighting and shadow in various scenes for great effect. But for the few moments where Grace is in space, we get a huge camera. We get to see space gloriously. These moments are to savor, and we get to. Lord & Miller (the directors) know when to shut up and let you feel. It really is a beautiful film.

This approach to the filmmaking continues in the moments of suspense, drama, or struggle. They’re not trying to force you to feel or get it, they just show you the content and trust you’ll put the pieces together. Just like in the Spiderverse series, Lord & Miller pile the screen with relevant information and don’t always point to it. You’d think this wouldn’t work in an age where Netflix continuously points right at things to make sure the audience saw it or has dialogue that literally explain what is happening to make sure the theme and tone isn’t lost. But no, in my theater the people next to me laughed, gasped, and “oh shit”-ted on cue. They understood the material. And that made me quite happy to be there, a room where we all shared the experience of this film — as cinema is meant to be.

And lastly, an great part of the storytelling is told through splicing in moments from Earth. All of them are flashbacks of course, but they explain the ongoings of Grace as he experiments and carries out his work with the multi-national science team. It’s not just that we get to see it happening, but it’s that all of these moments are placed to juxtapose present-day action. I loved how it never felt odd to cut back to Earth. There was one moment where something significant happens in the flashback and when we cut back to the present, I was already ready to expect something difficult occuring in the mission. It was effective storytelling.

No matter what you think about the life of Grace by the ending, it’s hopecore. A film that still plays into all the dynamics of space films but isn’t here to make you feel bad. At no point did the film overwhelm me (like Interstellar [2014] does). Instead, it stays light. It keeps you hooked but isn’t trying to pull the rug from under. It’s showing us how Grace can do it even if he doesn’t believe he can. Humans, we’re armed with tools and resources to do good. When we think, we feel, we try, and we achieve. Isn’t that what this basically boils down to? And it gives the optimism that we can approach aliens with good first (which ‘aliens’ am I talking about…hmmm). I love that, thank you Lord and Miller & Andy Weir.

9/10