"Project Hail Mary" And Lessons For Family Blockbusters

Critical Darlings

Beam me up…Rocky!? Critical Darlings is back, from outer space, in our new feed, talking about the first blockbuster of the year. Project Hail Mary, directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller for Amazon, is a family-friendly science fiction film about Ryan Gosling on a risky space mission with a cute alien pal. The movie is a critical and commercial success and feels livelier than so many would-be blockbusters. But what is it about Hail Mary that works where last year’s Gosling-led The Fall Guy failed? Is this the return of the ’80s-era cute puppet friend movie? Is Gosling the hottest middle school teacher ever?


Alison and Richard also get into the film itself, with sidebars on Gosling and Lord and Miller’s filmographies, and dig into Amazon’s upcoming film slate, James Bond, and whether the studio could become a significant player in a post-Paramount-merger landscape. Finally, we check in on the vibes around The Mandalorian and Grogu and Alison’s newest crush, Rotta the Hutt.


Read and subscribe to Richard's newsletter at Premiere Party, and read Alison at Vulture.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More description

Beam me up…Rocky!? Critical Darlings is back, from outer space, in our new feed, talking about the first blockbuster of the year. Project Hail Mary, directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller for Amazon, is a family-friendly science fiction film about Ryan Gosling on a risky space mission with a cute alien pal. The movie is a critical and commercial success and feels livelier than so many would-be blockbusters. But what is it about Hail Mary that works where last year’s Gosling-led The Fall Guy failed? Is this the return of the ’80s-era cute puppet friend movie? Is Gosling the hottest middle school teacher ever?


Alison and Richard also get into the film itself, with sidebars on Gosling and Lord and Miller’s filmographies, and dig into Amazon’s upcoming film slate, James Bond, and whether the studio could become a significant player in a post-Paramount-merger landscape. Finally, we check in on the vibes around The Mandalorian and Grogu and Alison’s newest crush, Rotta the Hutt.


Read and subscribe to Richard's newsletter at Premiere Party, and read Alison at Vulture.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2026-03-26 73 min
Listen elsewhere

Available Results

Generated results are saved to your library for reuse and search.

No generated results are available for this episode yet.

Transcript

No transcript is available for this episode yet.
Sign in to generate a transcript for review.
Sign in

Chapters

No chapters available.