Three Movie Reviews

Over the weekend, I saw three movies – one a little old, two brand new.

First there was the film adaptation of Andy Weir's novel Project Hail Mary, which I really enjoyed. Upon reviewing my review of the book, I see that I've been salivating over this movie since last September. Oh, cruel, cruel Hollywood, holding out on a really decent movie for so long!

So, at the risk of repeating what I said in my book review, the story is about a guy named Grace who wakes up from an induced coma with no memory whatsoever. By a combination of science and a slow drip of returning memory, he gradually works out that he's on a mission to Tau Ceti, something like 12 light years from Earth, because it's smack in the middle of a cluster of stars – including our sun – that are dying due to an interstellar plague of energy-eating microbes; and yet it (Tau Ceti) doesn't seem to be affected. He was apparently one of three astronauts sent in a ship propelled by these astrophage ("they toot, they scoot") to find out what Tau Ceti got that they ain't got and, for some reason, he's now the only one left alive. Soon after he gets to Tau Ceti, he encounters a representative of a completely non-anthropomorphic alien race who is also there for the same reason and, tragically, also the only surviving member of his crew. The fate of both their worlds depends on them figuring out what is keeping Tau Ceti peppy and how to send that home.

Rocky, the alien from 40 Eridani, is a surprise in the book but no effort was expended on keeping him a surprise for the movie. It works well for what it's billed as: a heartwarming, thought-provoking, near-future sci-fi buddy comedy featuring a lone human and a puppet (not CGI) alien. Alien who somehow conveys a distinct personality and a whole range of moods without having a face, or really almost any other recognizable characteristic of people as we know them. He eventually gets a voice, thanks to a computer subroutine that Grace programs to translate his complex language of musical tones. And the two of them develop a beautiful friendship that makes it possible for an audience to sit throughout a more than two-and-a-half-hour movie without complaining. Meanwhile, they're laughing, crying, feeling all kinds of emotions, and while the flashbacks do keep it from being altogether a one-man show, Ryan Gosling's acting as Grace deserves a lot of the credit for that.

Besides Gosling, the cast also includes academy award nominee Sandra Hüller (Zone of Interest) as the head of the Hail Mary Project, who dragoons Grace into sacrificing his future to save humanity; James Ortiz as the voice and lead puppeteer of Rocky; Ken Leung (Lost) as one of Grace's ill-fated crewmates; Lionel Boyce (The Bear) as a sympathetic security guard; and a one-line voice cameo by Meryl Streep. The screenplay is by Drew Goddard, who also wrote the screenplay for Weir's The Martian; directors are Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, directors of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, 21 and 22 Jump Street and The Lego Movie, and writers/producers of the Spider-Verse movies. So, a quality team there! And the results are a tremendously successful movie that, for just this moment, seems to be restoring audiences' faith in the possibility of really good movies. And by really good movie, I mean one that I've already seen not once but twice, at full theater price, with no regret whatsoever.

Three Scenes that Made It For Me: (1) Rocky's first hug, awkward in so many ways, all of them just right. (2) The dangerous mission to scoop "taumoeba" out of the atmosphere of the planet Adrian (just try to guess where that name came from) and all of the thrilling and devastating ways it goes wrong. (3) Hüller's karaoke scene, which (according to an excerpt from an interview that I saw online the other night) she apparently refused to do unless the song could be Harry Styles' "Sign of the Times." In the context of the story, it was a haunting choice.

The second film of the weekend was a streaming-on-TV presentation of The Ride from 2018. It's a fictionalized biography of BMX champion John Buultjens, starring rapper Ludacris and Rizzoli & Isles alum Sasha Alexander as his adoptive parents. Very fictionalized, it turns out. You actually see the guy himself at the end of the film, and there's no way the technology used by the teenaged version of his character existed when he was that age. Apparently he's from Scotland as well, while the kid in the movie seems to be from the L.A. area. But regardless of all that, it's an emotionally stirring story about a kid brought up in an abusive, racist home who, after a spell in juvenile detention (afte he stabs his dad to protect his mom), gets a chance to experience a loving family ... from an interracial couple. And also, despite never having learned to ride a bike, he goes on to win a big BMX championship.

I'm not going to belabor the synopsis. The kid is troubled. He's trouble. He gets a hard start in life and, by the time his teens hit, he's a hard young man. He's slow to accept a black man as his foster (and eventually adoptive) dad. He has a tendency to get into trouble. He's a fighter – a survivor. And as his attitudes change and his goals come into focus, he faces an old threat in a new form: the skinhead gang his father belonged to, and that his older brother still belongs to.

Three Scenes That Made It For Me: (1) The young bookworm, who has never gotten on half so well with people as with books, wins over the prettiest girl in history class by giving her a hint based on his knowledge of ancient Greek heroes. (2) After some behavioral hiccups reveal his longing to learn how to do BMX bike tricks, young John accepts some help from his foster-dad. (3) The tough older brother comes to the rescue when the Aryan Brotherhood targets John and his new family.

Finally, yesterday's matinee was The Pout-Pout Fish, based on the children's book by Deborah Diesen and featuring the voices of Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation), Miranda Otto (Eowyn from The Lord of the Rings), Jordin Sparks (2007 winner of American Idol), Amy Sedaris (BoJack Horseman), and Remy Hii (Crazy Rich Asians). Unlike Project Hail Mary, which I've been waiting to see since last September, I'd never heard of this movie until the day I saw it. It was part of the appeal, to tell the truth.

The part-American, part-Australian movie tells the story of a grumpy blue fish with a perpetual frown, who likes to keep to himself. A young sea dragon named Pip disturbs his tranquility, and after a mishap destroys both of their homes, they go on a quest to find a legendary, wish-granting fish known as Shimmer. Meanwhile, cuttlefish whose habitat is becoming uninhabitable due to a kelp infestation, sets off to seek the same source of magical help. Their paths cross multiple times, colliding as well with dolphins, sharks, whales, jellyfish, gossipy starfish and all kinds of other denizens of the deep in a series of adventures that range from funny to thrilling to scary and a little sad. Of course everybody learns lessons and they call come together at the end to solve the problems that threaten everybody's way of life in this diverse little corner of the ocean.

I thought it was an adorable movie, with a tender heart, a sharp sense of humor and gorgeous imagery. So I'll get right to Three Scenes That Made It For Me: (1) a trio of bedazzled, but very carnivorous, dolphins menaces the hero pair. (2) The cuttlefish use their power to hypnotize all the fish on the reef in their dastardly plan to redevelop it as their own habitat. (3) Mr. Fish (I love the name) remembers why he believes in Shimmer.