'Project Hail Mary' review: Ryan Gosling delights in a sci-fi buddy comedy

Author Andy Weir has single-handedly shaken up how moviegoers imagine astronauts. For a wide swathe of sci-fi movies, from 2001: A Space Odyssey to The Right Stuff, Gravity, Apollo 13, Interstellar, and First Man, the business of going to space in the movies has been serious stuff. Then came Matt Damon as a charmingly goofy botanist in 2015's The Martian, adapted from Weir's award-winning novel. Director Ridley Scott and screenwriter Drew Goddard turned a novel about growing potatoes and doing calculations into a crowd-pleasing comedy that even impressed critics. Now, Weir's work is back on the big screen with Project Hail Mary, which once more has Goddard penning the adapted screenplay. But this time, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, The LEGO Movie) take the helm, and it's Canadian movie star Ryan Gosling (The Fall Guy, Barbie) who's stepping into the spacesuit. Still, this sister film has a satisfyingly similar energy and thrust to its unserious astronaut tale. Imagine The Martian meets Half Nelson meets E.T., and you'll get some idea of the mirthful mash-up that is Project Hail Mary. Based on Weir's 2022 novel of the same name, Project Hail Ma