Project Hail Mary (2026)

This rules! Propulsive, emotional, and singular, Project Hail Mary is an epic space odyssey about friendship and sacrifice. It has an engaging story, memorable characters, witty dialogue, and dazzling visuals to match. It's not perfect--could have had a cleaner ending if it didn't drag on a bit much to set up a sequel, but probably still the best commercial film in 2026 so far.

The choice to board a ship to go on a one-way trip into deep space reminds me of Contact, still my favorite sci-fi film. It's actually hard to pull this off because the motivation for anyone to perform this ask is usually too bland or cliché, and yet it grounds the whole story. In Contact, Dr. Arroway does it from a place of curiosity and collective introspection. In Project Hail Mary, Captain Yao tells Grace that the bravery it takes to make such a sacrifice is not something you are born with, and that you just need to find someone you are willing to risk everything for. Grace has to figure that out on the go, and we get to do it together with him.

Glad to see Sandra Hüller in more mainstream films, again delivering a mommy character I'd trust with my life. I am convinced Rocky is actually a cat, though nowadays literally every single nonhuman character only reminds me of my cat. And I do wonder if Eridians do actually want to watch either sleep--it's entirely plausible that Rocky made it up just to watch Ryan Gosling sleep(again, very feline-coded behavior).

Besides that, it’s hard to get into specific scenes without giving major plot points away. Go see it! In IMAX if possible.