Do we love grounded, gritty indie movies? Yes. Do we love vibe-heavy movies that don’t make a ton of sense but are fun? Also yes. But do we love big-budget movies that make us feel all the feels and feature Ryan Gosling in slutty little glasses? Absolutely yes.
Here’s what we have for you this week:
Concession Stand Scorecard: Project Hail Mary
Watchlist Worthy: Denis Dune-it again
New Pod: OSCARS!!!!
This week’s movie - Project Hail Mary
Letterboxd Description:
Believe in the Hail Mary.
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.
Best Watched With
Fast friends, forced friends, and any buddies who will let you bump their fist.
End Credit Thoughts
Doesn’t matter how great a movie is, how cool it looks, or how much we love the actors. Someone will always pop up to say, “yeah, but it’s not realistic,” especially when it involves science and alien life. But we’re here to make the case that this might actually be the most realistic movie ever made.
The world is on the brink. Every living thing on Earth is about to be wiped out in horrific, catastrophic fashion unless we send our most intelligent human to charm the hell out of a mysterious alien rock species, somehow figure out how to communicate, collaborate, and save the planet. And if they pull it off? Instant global fame. Magazine covers. Front-page headlines. Movies made about them. This person must not only be highly capable but also insanely handsome, and someone out there is going to say it is unrealistic that we would send Ryan Fucking Gosling?! We’re not buying it.
It would be pretty rad if Ryan Gosling saved the world and played himself in a movie, because no one else is as charismatic, good-looking, and wholesome as he is.
Okay, we digress.
Project Hail Mary is the adaptation of Peter Weir’s novel with the same name, which was a finalist for the 2022 Hugo Award for Best Novel. It’s highly praised and celebrated, so the story was there. The characters are thought out and fleshed out. There’s a built-in audience. All the filmmakers had to do was not mess it up.
And they super duper did not mess up in the slightest.
The visuals are absolutely stunning. We spend a whole lot of time in space, and quite a bit of time feeling overwhelmed by the vast, ever-expanding universe while simultaneously being mesmerized by its beauty and existence. It’s as if the Northern lights and the deepest, coldest parts of the Pacific Ocean had a baby. Beautiful and also terrifying.
But it is not just the space scenes that are gorgeous. It’s everything. The spaceship, the science things, the earth facilities, whatever is on the screen, it is shot well with captivating coloring and vibrant visualization of things we know little to nothing about (not one of us is a STEM person. Shoutout 17 major changes in the humanities). The camera did a lot of heavy lifting, but the flutes, choral arrangements and strings had our smiles wide and our hearts in our throats in one of the most memorable scores we’ve heard in a long time.
Even though this movie is grounded in astrophysics, orbital mechanics, microbiology, and physics, it’s the chemistry between actors and puppets (that’s right, no CGI Rocky) that holds everything together. We get some amazing supporting cast performances from Sandra Hüller as Eva Stratt and Lionel Boyce (we first saw him in The Bear and loved him, so he was a treat when he came on screen) as Carl. And it’s no surprise that they work well with Ryan Gosling (Ryland Grace). He may be an absolute liability at the corner, but Gosling is so damn charming that we could probably have world peace by now if he wasn’t too busy making movies and being the best father to his two kids and husband to love of his life.
This is a quintessential Gosling movie. We see him at his best, showing us his range with comedic timing, heartbreaking emotions, and how fit a 45-year-old can look (there is no way we were going to leave out anatomy).
This movie is a much-needed story and timely for our day and age. End-of-the-world stories can be so cold, cautionary, and have us fearing the future. Project Hail Mary does not have us fearing the end, but believing in the best of humanity while offering alternative reactions to “the other.” Extraterrestrial life forms do not always have to be aggressors and imperialistic, depicting the worst parts of the human race. They don’t even have to like humanoids. This movie envisions something entirely new and shows us our strength and resilience in a humble, wholesome way.
This is our first full movie of 2026. Be prepared to be held in thought, to laugh, and to cry, both tears of sadness and tears of joy. A must see in IMAX or whatever the largest screen is with the loudest sound. It is worth every dollar. It may not be the best movie we see this year, but it is a good-ass movie that gets close.
Josh Jump Scare Count: 2
Classic Ryan Gosling Yelp: 2
Want to know more about our individual rankings of movies?
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Dune: Part Three by Denis Villeneuve
Letterboxd Description:
The epic conclusion.
As Emperor, Paul Atreides grapples with the consequences of his rise to power as political conspiracies and a galaxy-spanning holy war threaten the future he alone can foresee.
Timmy doing a war chant, R Patt looking like the biggest intergalactic menace, and the seeming return of Duncan Idaho. What more could we ask for in the finale in what will probably be one of the best sci-fi trilogies of all time?
Also Directed by Denis Villeneuve:
There’s just too many to list
Oscars 2026: Sinners! and a Rose Byrne Snub #71
🎧 Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
🎥 Watch this episode on YouTube
Josh Perez and Eric Harrison return after a hiatus to recap recent movie-world happenings and react to the Oscars, including a lively first Substack chat and confusion over ballots and voice-memo predictions.
They plug Sweet and Condense on Instagram/Substack, their newsletter and “favorite weekend watches,” and Patrick D’Silva’s new podcast Worlds Beyond Worlds. The discussion centers on Oscar wins and frustrations, especially Eric’s anger that Best Actress went to Jesse Buckley for Hamnet over his preferred Rose Byrne in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, and on the criticism that Academy voters don’t have to watch nominees.
They praise Conan O’Brien’s hosting, Paul Thomas Anderson’s wins and speeches, and highlight Sinners’ strong night, including Autumn Durald Arkapaw becoming the first woman to win cinematography, while debating Michael B. Jordan’s Best Actor win over Timothée Chalamet.
Kelly briefly joins to share favorite theater experiences (notably Sinners and Frankenstein), and they close by predicting next year’s contenders like Project Hail Mary, Odyssey, and Digger.
Tune in next week for | They Will Kill You
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