What a delight it is to watch smart people collaborate while living a real life that is dominated by idiot isolationists. Project Hail Mary is being praised for its optimism and for Ryan Gosling’s dangerously-exponentially-increasing charm. Both are fair kudo targets, even if the latter is going to be a problem that we will have to collectively address at some point.

What’s striking is that few people seem to be hailing the film as a clarion call to remember that smart people are really cool.

We are besieged by unrepentant, aggressive dumb-dumbs right now. We are at the mercy of morons pulling at the levers of power, all clearly labeled “pull.” We are incessantly screeched at by simpletons who swear that we must respect the wholly uninformed gibberish that falls out of their mouths, oftentimes leading to literal death.

Put me on the record: When (not if) the whole entire earth is about to die, I would like the smartest humans to come together in a room and figure out what to do about it. That is essentially what Project Hail Mary is about. Brilliant people figuring stuff out. Hell yeah.

Told in disjointed order for the sake of drama, but not in like a Christopher Nolanesque “watch me do cinema” way, we come to quickly find out that amnesiac science teacher Ryland Grace (Gosling) is humanity’s last hope. He’s on a spaceship super-duper far away, which is the Neil-deGrasse-Tyson-approved technical term. He must stop small space dots from eating the sun, more or less. I said that the people in the movie are smart, not the person writing the movie review.

Ryland meets an alien made out of stone that he calls Rocky. This is not a spoiler. It is in the trailer, and writer Drew Goddard, novelist Andy Weir, and directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have all gone on record saying that Rocky is “the heart of the story” and not a film-ruining reveal.

Via flashbacks, we see how a group of awesome smart people, led by the kinda-mean-but-pretty-much-always-right Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller), come up with a plan to maybe hopefully keep the human race alive. There are expected hiccups and space catastrophes, a darling interspecies friendship, and just so much science. You remember science, right? It’s that thing we have replaced with magical thinking, internet rumors, and half-remembered anecdotes someone heard from a friend of a friend.

Greig Fraser’s cinematography is a real pip. Rocky’s design and his Speak & Spell voice (James Ortiz) are endearing. Gosling is, as mentioned above, becoming too likeable. We can’t all agree to adore one person like this. He will grow too powerful. Sure, he is benevolent now, but for how long? FOR HOW LONG?

Project Hail Mary is the unique kind of triumph that you can recommend to everyone. Even idiots. Especially idiots. Idiots need to see this movie so that they learn: Respecting and celebrating people who are smarter than you isn’t a sign of weakness. It is a blessing. It is a gift. Geniuses have the weight of the whole world on their shoulders. Simpletons in suits across the globe are currently tearing the social order apart because they would prefer that machines do the thinking. Even if it was only for a few hours, it was nice to watch a celebration of what organic gray matter can do.

Grade = A

Other Critical Voices to Consider

Nathalia Aryani at The Movie Maven says “With a joyous, comical undertone, heartrending poignancy, beautiful visuals and masterful score, Project Hail Mary is a marvel of a project.”

Sarah Vincent says “As an odd couple movie, Project Hail Mary is a heartwarming hit, and its Roddenberry-esque sensibility will make sci-fi optimists’ hearts grow three sizes or more! Still it is long, and there is a better, shorter, unmarketable version that prioritizes Rocky’s story because Grace felt more like the supporting character in his story given how rich Rocky’s life was.”

André Hereford at Metro Weekly says “Whether on an alien vessel or a distant star, the visual effects and sound design are transporting — perhaps not with the tactile detail of, say, Gravity, but powerful enough, especially on an IMAX screen. One vertiginous sequence of Grace hanging off the side of a spinning spaceship just might send chills down your spine and shudders through your knees.”