I loved PROJECT HAIL MARY. Flat out. This will be on my Best Picture list at year’s end, and Ryan Gosling deserves serious Best Actor consideration for the way he carries this thing with humor, vulnerability, and just enough “how the hell did I get here?” panic. The film is directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, adapted by Drew Goddard from Andy Weir’s novel, and stars Gosling alongside Sandra Hüller, James Ortiz, and Lionel Boyce. It follows Ryland Grace, a middle-school science teacher and former molecular biologist who wakes up alone on a spacecraft with no memory of how he got there, only to gradually realize he may be humanity’s last shot at survival.

And then there’s Rocky. I’m not kidding when I say the performance behind that character should reignite the whole conversation around awards recognition for CGI-assisted acting. James Ortiz both voiced and puppeteered Rocky on set, with additional voice work also part of the final character build, and the result is one of the year’s most lovable and fully realized screen creations. Rocky is not a side gimmick. He’s the soul of the movie.

What really knocked me out, though, is how faithful the movie feels to Weir’s book while still playing as a big, emotional crowd-pleaser. That is not easy to do. The science is accessible, the friendship at the center works beautifully, and the movie never loses sight of its humanity. It also left me thinking, not for the first time, that Lord and Miller would have done something really special with SOLO if they’d been allowed to finish the job. Instead, they made this — and honestly, I’m not complaining. PROJECT HAIL MARY is one of the best book adaptations I can remember and one of the year’s best films.

Check out the KNVU For The People Movie Show where we chatted about PROJECT HAIL MARY, listen to past shows here, and watch the trailer for PROJECT HAIL MARY below.