‘Project Hail Mary’ Projects a Universe’s Worth of Resourcefulness and Wonder

March 18, 2026

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It’s a touchdown! (CREDIT: Jonathan Olley
© 2026 Amazon Content Services LLC. All Rights Reserved.)

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Sandra Hüller, James Ortiz, Lionel Boyce, Ken Leung, Milana Vayntrub, Priya Kansara

Directors: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller

Running Time: 156 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Quite Mild Suggestive Themes and References

Release Date: March 13, 2026 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Ryland Grace is just a middle school teacher! But he might also be the exact right person to save the world, and possibly even the entire universe. Here’s the potentially apocalyptic problem: a newly discovered form of microorganisms called astrophages are basically eating up our Sun and so many other stars… except for one strikingly immune astral body light-years away from Earth. Despite his current humble position, Dr. Grace has the precisely necessary background to tackle such an intractable problem. So one day he finds himself waking up in a spaceship very far from home, and it just so happens that he’s right next to a cute alien scientist that he dubs Rocky. And so, they of course team up to save the universe together.

What Made an Impression?: A Truly Alien Encounter: With more than a century’s worth of cinema about interplanetary adventures, it can feel like we’ve run out of all possible design ideas for extraterrestrial beings. And yet we’ve never before encountered anything quite like Rocky (though certain individual elements may harken back to some classics). Voiced and puppeteered by James Ortiz, he’s got the blocky geometry of TARS from Interstellar crossed with the boundless energy of a puppy and the playful genius of an Einstein.
A Bond as Vast as the Universe: I wonder how a movie critic from Rocky’s species would describe Dr. Grace in a review of their planet’s version of Project Hail Mary. I imagine this creature would be massively charmed and would even speculate that he would be giggling all the time on their planet’s analogue of Saturday Night Live. Anyway, that’s just a windup towards disclosing that Rocky and Grace’s friendship is absolutely lovely to witness. You could call them The Odd Couple of 2026, except that it’s not odd at all.
Remembering What It’s All For: If your favorite part of Toni Erdmann was Sandra Hüller busting out some Whitney Houston, then you’ll be happy to learn that she sings another noteworthy pop number in PHM. I won’t mention the exact tune here in case you want to go in cold, but I will note that it has been teased during the promotional cycle, and it’s a blast whether you’re ready for it or not.
We Can Do It!: With equal amounts of fun and worry to be had in this epic galaxy-spanning adventure, the biggest takeaway is that there’s still room for hope in an existence where everything seems to be crumbling apart. I was massively inspired by Grace and Rocky’s teamwork, and I suspect that you will be too. What a wonderful feeling to be left with when stepping out of the theater!

Project Hail Mary is Recommended If You Like: NASA, Interplanetary collaboration, Karaoke

Grade: 4 out of 5 Astrophages

‘The Zone of Interest’ is a Strangely Terrifying History Lesson

December 13, 2023

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CREDIT: A24

Starring: Christian Friedel, Sandra Hüller

Director: Jonathan Glazer

Running Time: 105 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Discussions About the Holocaust

Release Date: December 15, 2023 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: The Zone of Interest might be the most banal movie ever made about the Holocaust. I don’t mean that as a criticism, but rather as objectively as possible. It revolves around the day-to-day goings-on of real-life German SS officer Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel) and his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller) during the reign of Hitler. Most of the film takes place at their home and garden while they take care of chores and their kids run around without a care in the world. Then the last third or so revolves around government meetings in which Rudolf helps implement plans to round up Hungarian Jews into concentration camps. Afterwards, Rudolf walks up and down some staircases by himself. And then the film just ends.

What Made an Impression?: Fly on the Wall: I haven’t read the Martin Amis novel that the movie is based on, so I didn’t come into The Zone of Interest knowing too much of what to expect. I did watch the two trailers, but they’re among the vaguest previews I’ve ever seen. It might have helped if I had read a synopsis, but only barely. Writer-director Jonathan Glazer shoots it all like a cinéma vérité documentary, and the presentation is so insular that it can be pretty difficult to suss out even the setting if you haven’t prepared ahead of time. There’s something especially unnerving about this lack of explanation. It feels like you’ve been dropped into a place where you don’t belong, and when you realize where you are, it only becomes even more terrifying.
Surreal & A Little Supernatural: The Zone of Interest prompted one of the most surprising comparisons I’ve ever made in my life as a film buff. Specifically, there are a few moments throughout the film in which a character appears to be trapped in a black space in which all the colors have been flushed out and the sound is distorted. It’s like a cut to hell or some sort of netherworld that felt a lot like the temporal and spatial warping in the Paranormal Activity franchise. The message seems to be: an evil entity is always lurking around Rudolf and his ilk, even if he can’t quite put his finger on it. Continuing the theme of inexplicable time travel, there’s also a flash forward to some janitorial workers at a present-day Holocaust museum, which is just as unforgettably banal as the rest of the film. I spent most of my time watching The Zone of Interest confused about when the plot would actually start moving. Now I can’t get its disturbing plainness out of my head.

The Zone of Interest is Recommended If You Like: The Act of Killing, Staring into the face of evil, Avant-garde film scores

Grade: 4 out of 5 Swastikas

With ‘Anatomy of a Fall’ and ‘It’s a Wonderful Knife,’ Death is Already on the Cinematic Menu

November 12, 2023

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CREDIT: NEON

Anatomy of a Fall

Starring: Sandra Hüller, Swann Arlaud, Milo Machado-Graner, Antoine Renartz, Samuel Theis, Jehnny Beth

Director: Justine Triet

Running Time: 152 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: October 13, 2023 (Theaters)

It’s a Wonderful Knife

Starring: Jane Widdop, Joel McHale, Justin Long, Jess McLeod, Aiden Howard, Hana Huggins, Katharine Isabelle, Cassandra Naud, Erin Boyes, William B. Davis, Sean Depner, Zenia Marshall

Director: Tyler MacIntyre

Running Time: 90 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: November 10, 2023 (Theaters)

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This Is a Movie Review: Toni Erdmann

January 1, 2017

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toni-erdmann

The German comedy Toni Erdmann focuses on the relationship between Ines Conradi (Sandra Hüller), an ambitious, high-strung business consultant and her dad Winifried (Peter Simonischek), a music teacher who can apparently take off as much time off as he pleases. Winifried is worried that Ines has lost all the joy in her life, so he deploys his persona disguise known as “Toni Erdmann” (complete with fake teeth and Tommy Wiseau-style wig and sunglasses) to subtly invade her professional life. She is at first unsurprisingly horrified (though she does passively-aggressively play along a little bit), but eventually he wins her over and she hugs him with all her love and gratitude.

I know what you’re thinking: “Another Manic Pixie Dream Dad movie?!” Here it is important to note a crucial difference between MPDD and the OG MPD Girl: the calculus is very different when the relationship is not romantic. Winifried’s entire purpose in the film can be making Ines discover how to enjoy life because fulfilling that role is part of the parental instinct. He has known her whole life, so he should have some idea what can lift her spirits. In conclusion, Toni Erdmann is kind of like if in the future Louise from Bob’s Burgers happens to forget her sense of humor and good old dad Bob Belcher has to intervene and remind her of what makes her happy.

I give Toni Erdmann 9 Tommy Wiseau’s out of 10 Europeans.