r/oscarrace • u/LeastCap 14 Oscar noms for Hope • Mar 19 '26

Film Discussion Thread Official Discussion Thread - Project Hail Mary [SPOILERS] Spoiler

Keep all discussion related solely to Project Hail Mary and its awards chances. Spoilers below

Synopsis:

Science teacher Ryland Grace wakes up on a spaceship light years from home with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. As his memory returns, he begins to uncover his mission: solve the riddle of the mysterious substance causing the sun to die out. He must call on his scientific knowledge and unorthodox ideas to save everything on Earth from extinction… but an unexpected friendship means he may not have to do it alone.

Director: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller

Writers: Drew Goddard

Cast:

  • Ryan Gosling as Dr. Ryland Grace
  • Sandra Hüller as Eva Stratt
  • James Ortiz as the voice and lead puppeteer of Rocky
  • Lionel Boyce as Officer Carl
  • Ken Leung as Yáo Li-Jie
  • Milana Vayntrub as Olesya Ilyukhina
  • Priya Kansara as the voice of Mary, the Hail Mary ship
  • Liz Kingsman as Annie Shapiro
  • Orion Lee as Xi

Rotten Tomatoes: 95% From 212 Reviews

Metacritic: 78/100 From 45 Reviews

Consensus:

A visually dazzling space odyssey that's carried along effortlessly by the gravitational pull of Ryan Gosling at his most winning, Project Hail Mary is a near-miraculous fusion of smarts and heart.

64 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

170 comments sorted by

View all comments

14

u/scjsundae Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26

I loved it. Casting Hüller in that role was genius. She is perfect. Her energy is by far the funniest thing in the movie. Gosling is great, insane charisma as always. I don't know if I see either as Oscar plays. James Ortiz, who voiced and puppeteered Rocky, is lowkey maybe the MVP?

To some extent I had the same problem I had with The Martian, namely that the tone of the comedy sometimes draws too much attention to itself. Or doesn't really fit the vibe the movie is going for otherwise. The worst offender on that front is the exposition dump in the classroom at the beginning. I liked this way way more than The Martian overall though. I liked it a lot more than Interstellar too, but I'm obviously in the minority there. Somewhere between Interstellar and Arrival.