Movie Time: Project Hail Mary

A few weeks ago, the world was enthralled with the Artemis II mission and the 4 astronauts who ventured forth into space further than any humans had ever gone before.

We admired their courage and their professionalism. 

We were also enchanted by their humanity, their humor and their kindness.  

Their greatest achievement beyond going into space was to demonstrate the best of humanity, what we can accomplish when we put aside hatred, fear and bitterness and embrace hope, caring and love. 

Keep this in mind as we transition from science fact to science fiction.

It's.... Movie Time! 

Last weekend, son Dean, friend Jan, wife Andrea and myself ventured forth from the Fortress of Ineptitude to go see Project Hail Mary.  

Based on a 2021 novel by Andy Weir, the screenplay is by Drew Goddard who also developed the television series High Potential.  The film is directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the same creative team that has brought us Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, The Lego Movie, and the Spider-Verse films.  

Ryan Gosling stars as Ryland Grace, a scientists hurled to the farthest reaches of space with a fragmented memory and urgent mission to save all humanity.

No pressure. 

The narrative of Project Hail Mary engages in some wibbly wobbly timey wimey. 

 

The movie begins with Ryland Grace waking up from a coma.

 

On a space ship.

 

Light years from Earth.

 

Alone.  Two other crew members are dead. 

 

He has questions.

 

• Who is he?
• Why is he on this space ship?
• Why is this space ship so far from home?

 

Answers to these questions arrive in fragments of memory that slowly surface as Grace seeks to orient himself to this current circumstances.

 

Long story made short: Earth’s sun is dying, being consumed by some alien contagion. The contagion manifests itself via a connection between the sun and Venus.

 

Ryland Grace is a disgraced scientist teaching high school science classes who is recruited by a mysterious cabal investigating this solar mystery. 

 

Grace is some kind of super genius who figures out what is going on.  He also discovers that material called 

astrophage brought back from a probe to Venus can power a space ship for interstellar travel.

 

Which is kind of important.    

 

Elsewhere in space, other stars are also dying with connections between the star and a nearby planet.

 

There is ONE star, Tau Ceti,  with a connection to a planet that is NOT dying.

 

The mission: send a spaceship called Hail Mary to Tau Ceti and find out why and use that information to hopefully save our own sun.  

 

There’s a time crunch. Earth has about 30 years left before the sun dies out and the planet freezes. 

 

Well, that explains the mission but how did a nerdy scientist turned high school teacher wind up on this mission?

 

That answer will be forthcoming as the story progresses and if you guessed it wasn’t exactly his idea, well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

 

Grace arrives at Tau Ceti and finds he has company.

An alien ship docks with the Hail Mary. The ship's pilot is a rock-like, five-legged alien from a planet in the 40 Eridani A system. 

It takes a minute to work it out but Grace and the alien pilot (who Grace calls "Rocky") learn to communicate.  

The native environments for Grace and Rocky are mutually toxic to each other.  Rocky can only join Grace on the Hail Mary in a special protective bubble.

Rocly has the same mission as Ryland Grace. His home planet is also facing an encroaching death sentence from a dying sun unless Rocky can figure out why Tau Ceti is not dying and bring that answer back home.  

Grace and Rocky form a close bond as they pool resources. 

I would say that their respective world saving missions as well as all the technobabble science and physical dangers involved are virtual McGuffins to the real heart of this story, the growing friendship between Grace and Rocky. 

Much like Reid, Victor, Christina and Jeremy of the Artemis II mission, the real value of this mission into space is to extoll the virtues of goodness and mercy, the best that humanity can be.(Or in the case of Rocky, the best Eridian.)  .  

Using their minds, Grace and Rocky science the shit out of a solution to save their respective home worlds.

Using their hearts, Grace and Rocky overcome fear to build something strong, enduring and truly valuable.  

There is a very real fear that Grace and Rocky can't both survive their missions into space.

I will caution that ultimately, this is NOT that kind of movie. 

Although the filmmakers lean really hard into that overwhelming feeling of dread.  

Project Hail Mary with it's alien worlds, distant stars and space faring tech certainly looks cool. 

But it's Grace and Rocky who make it really worth watching.

FUN FACT: James Ortiz was the puppeeter who operated Rocky.  He also provided Rocky's voice in what was intended to be a scratch track to serve as a placeholder until a more high profile actor would come in to do the voice acting. 

But Lord and Miller were so happy with James Ortiz's voice work, they kept him on in lieu of a bigger name. 

I agree with their assessment. Rocky has a peculiar cadence that rides the currents between gentle and snarky. 

And Ryan Gosling is a perfect match for Ryland Grace, intellectual arrogance interspersed with social awkwardness. He's a space hero who was never meant to be a space hero.  But he steps up to do inspiring but dangerous things not out of some sense of heroism but just because things need to be done to save Earth.  And Rocky's world as well.  

Gosling's Ryland Grace is a goofball who has no business being on an adventure in space.

But ultimately, Grace is indeed the man for the job in his own peculiar way.

There are those who might question the strong sentimentality at the heart of a sci-fi movie but it's that sentiment that make Project Hail Mary worth seeing and a pleasure to remember.

__________________________

More science fiction tomorrow with another edition of Star Trekking and the 4th season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

And more Ryan Gosling in next week's Your Friday Video Link.     

Your Friday Video Link: EVEN MUCH MORE METRIC!!!

This is the first day of May.

Which begins with "M".

Also begins with "M"?

METRIC! 

My favorite Canadian rock band obsession! 

Last week, on April 24th, Metric dropped a new album and will be heading out on tour to support it.

So for today's Your Friday Video Link, here are some live performances for this edition of EVEN MUCH MORE METRIC!!!

Here is "Formentera" performed live at the Fillmore in Philadelphia on October 23, 2022.

Here's another live performance from that Philadelphia show, "False Dichotomy".

Going back further in time to June 20, 2012 with Metric in their native Canada,  in Toronto with "Speed the Collapse" .   

Click here for their current tour.

I cannot get enough Metric! 

That is that for this week's Your Friday Video Link.

Back tomorrow with Movie Time as we venture forth into SPACE!

Dave-El's Spinner Rack: Batman

Last Friday on the occasion of my birthday, I went to an antique store to purchase World War II memorabilia.

Well, I'm 63 years old and that's what I'm supposed to do.

Screw what I'm supposed to do.

I ventured forth to the best comic book store in the world (Acme Comics of Greensboro NC) and bought myself some comic books.

Let's take a look at a couple of them today.  

Batman#7  finds Matt Fraction and Jorge Jiménez kicking off a new story arc and still producing an amazing series.

Matt brings us the Joker.

Which should not be that big of a deal. Talk about overused and overexposed.  Anyone who writes the Bat has to take on the Clown Prince of Crime sooner or later.

Except the Joker is in a very unique position at the moment.

The Joker is floating in a vat of liquid, hooked up to tubes and wires, the latest subject of Dr. Zeller's experiments

We really want to like Dr. Zeller, especially after she and Bruce did (and did not) go on a date a few months back.  

But her efforts to cure Gotham's criminal class of their psychotic homicidal tendencies while laudable seem too close to eugenics, too lobotomizing these individuals.

Given how much hellish torment Gotham City has endured from these crazed killers, is Dr. Zeller simply doing what needs to be done to save the city from these criminals, to even save them from themselves? Is she a benevolent soul taking extreme measures to achieve her goals? Or does she have a darker intent we've yet to see?

Even though the Joker is floating in a vat of liquid, hooked up to tubes and wires, contained by a crap ton of security protocols, he has somehow gotten a message out: he wants to talk to Batman.  

Dr. Zeller reluctantly concedes to letting Batman into her lab under very exacting conditions.

Including Batman needing to take his boots off.

We get to see Bat-tootsies! 😕

And so Batman and the Joker have a conversation. 

Or perhaps more to the point, a psychological battle.

Batman is suspicious of this uncharacteristically docile Joker an challenges him: "Is that the gag, Joker? You can't remember all the horrible things you've done anymore?"

The Joker calmly replies, "On the contrary, Batman.  I remember. I remember everything."

This exchange leads into an astonishing display, a 4 page fold out, a bold surreal display of the Joker's demented history by Jorge Jimenez with a vibrant palate by colorist Tomeu Morey.

Jimenez and Morey have been consistently amazing bringing Matt Fraction's stories to life.

SIDE BAR: a complaint.  The Joker's dialogue is presented in light green lettering in black boxes. It is near impossible to read in normal light. I had to shine a flashlight on those boxes to discern what Joker was saying.  

I've complained before about the overly clever use of color to convey text in a comic book to evoke some kind of mood or tone.  As much as enjoyed this issue of Batman, it kind of diminshed my good feeling about the issue to endure eye strain to freakin' read part of it. 

OK, back to the story. 

Joker claims he thinks of Batman as a friend and discerns that Batman is lonely.   

Batman thinks Joker is full of shit but does seem a little bit rattled that the Joker is trying is trying to peer into his soul.

The Joker warns Batman that someone is coming to kill him.

Batman dismissed this as an empty threat. He's Batman. Big deal. Someone is always coming to kill him.

Then the Joker delivers a more pointed warning.  

"Bruce"?  

(Holy podiatry, Batman! Look at those feet! Is Bruce Wayne making his money on OnlyFans?)  

Now the idea that the Joker knows that Batman is Bruce Wayne is not the big revelation that you might think.  Previous writers like Scott Snyder, Joshua Williamson and Chip Zdarsky have played kind of fast and loose with the idea that the Joker knows way too much about Batman NOT to know who he is under that mask.

But Matt Fraction is the first writer to make that knowledge explicit, not just for the readers but for Batman as well.   

Whatever this revelation means for Batman will have to wait.

Batman#8 takes on different problems.

Dealing with the problem that Vandal Savage is Gotham's police commissioner, Batman seeks counsel from a long time Gotham resident, Alan Scott.

AKA Green Lantern.  

Specifically the Golden Age Green Lantern.  Back in the 1940's, the immortal Vandal Savage was a recurring threat for Green Lantern and his fellow members of the Justice Society.  

Yeah, it's another issue with another conversation but Matt writes these so well.  

Also engaged in dialogue is Vandal Savage with the new mayor of Gotham City, Pamela Isley.

Otherwise known as Poison Ivey.

Issue #8 is the first issue in this run not drawn by Jorge Jiminez but artist Ryan Sook steps up to provide a pretty good looking issue, even if most of it is Batman and Alan Scott drinking coffee in a diner.  

Next week from the Spinner Rack: What's up with the Justice League in a post King Omega world? 

Invasion of the Fortress of Ineptitude

 Last Friday was my birthday.

I had the day off from work and had a fairly pleasant day.

I watched a random movie on TCM which is always a nice way to pass some time.

I went to Acme Comics to buy some comic books which I read most of them that afternoon.

Nothing says that a man is 63 years old than going to the comic book store and whiling away the afternoon reading comic books.

Andrea took me out to dinner for steak at Logan's where my waitress and the staff clapped and cheered for my 63 years of not dying. Normally I find such displays to be awkward and uncomfortable but I was determined I was not going to be a stick in the mud about. I clapped along with them and cheered as well.  

Andrea and I shared a free slice of cheesecake with strawberries that was quite delicious. 

Then it was time to go back home to the Fortress of Ineptitude for my favorite activity: watching TV.  

Which is what we were doing when around 10:30 PM, I heard footsteps, a noise at the front door and the door handle rattled.

I found this quite alarming. 

I've had nightmares about home invasions that played out exactly as this sequence of events.

I reached for my phone.

Andrea: What are you doing?

Me: I'm calling 911! 

Andrea: What?

Me: I don't know who that is! I'm not taking any chances! I'm calling 911! 

Andrea: No! Don't do that! 

As I said, I found this quite alarming. 

Oddly enough, my wife did... not?

She's the one who panics and worries at the drop of the proverbial hat with this slightest provocation. 

There's a stranger rattling our door knob seeking entry to our home and she is the one telling me NOT to call 911?

Entry to the Fortress of Ineptitude was achieved by...

Our son Dean, friend Jan and Rosie the dog.

Dean had texted Andrea to tell her they were going to make a trip to Greensboro to surprise me on my birthday.

So Andrea kept a secret from me.

Which she is usually rather bad at.  

Well, there's nothing like the real life occurrence of my recurring nightmare of my home being invaded to get my 63 year old heart pumping.   

Once I recovered from that shock, I was very happy to welcome these visitors.  

And I was extremely happy to see what Dean had made for my present. 

You're looking at already: a new banner for I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You.

I'm going to miss this old guy that Dean drew for me a few years back.

But this new banner is... Wow! 

There's so much going on here.

Days since last typo: zero! 

Yeah, that sounds about right.

And there's references to Doctor Who, Star Trek, the blog's editorial board, bananas and other fiddly bits associated with this fershlugginer blog.

A veritable "this is your life" Easter Egg fest. 

And an excellent work of art, Dean and I'm proud to make it a part of this goofy online enterprise.  

Meanwhile, the blog goes on.

We've got a Spinner Rack post tomorrow with some of those new comics I read on my birthday.  

Last Saturday, we went to see Project Hail Mary and I'll have more about that on this Saturday's Movie Time post. 

Gerry Conway

Well, dammit, the specter of death has claimed another part of my comic book reading youth.

Writer Gerry Conway has died.

A lot of the obituraries I've seen focused on his work for Marvel, creating The Punisher, Werewolf by Night, Ms. Marvel and...

His work on Spider-Man where he famously killed off Gwen Stacy.

I knew Gerry's work at DC Comics where he had long runs on Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman and very long stretch on Justice League of America.

One of Gerry's most outstanding issues of JLA was the super sized 200th issue with artist George Perez and assorted guest artists like Joe Kubert, Brian Bolland, Jim Aparo and more.

DC is releasing a facsimile edition of JLA#200 this summer.

I will be honest that Conway was not always a favorite writer. Particularly during DC's Implosion era where Conway did a lot of heavy lifting on titles as competent comic book writer person. 

Superboy & the Legion of Super Heroes comes to mind.

But even when merely being competent and not great, Conway still managed to deliver some good solid writing. 

He brought a sense of depth and maturity to DC characters who otherwise lacked nuanced characterization.  

And when Conway was truly inspired, the passion showed.

Like in his best known DC creation, Firestorm.

Mark Evanier described Gerry Conway as "a good writer, a good guy and a good friend. "

I've never heard anyone say a negative word by the man.

He was a big part of my childhood comic book reading experience.  And he will be missed.  

Tuesday TV Touchbase: Scrubs and Malcolm In the Middle

Alas, parting is such sweet sorrow.

The remarkable run by Jamie Ding as Jeopardy champion has come to an end after 31 straight games and winning $882,605 in prize money.

I thought if anyone had a shot at challenging Ken Jennings' record, it would be Jamie.  

Jamie was fast on the buzzer and knew a LOT of stuff but he was also a gracious competitor.  We're going to miss you on the Alex Trebek stage and look forward to your return in the next Tournament of Champions.

Well, as the saying goes, "What's old is new again" and television certainly adheres to that axiom.  

Andrea and I followed the revival of Scrubs and for the most part, we were satisfied with this new serie.

J.D. is still prone to flights of fantasy even as he has moved from fledgling intern to Chief of Medicine at Sacred Heart Hospital.  

I know there was some opposition from fans to have J.D. and Elliot be divorced and I was one of them.  But I have to admit that having our "will they/won't they" couple from the original series land on the side of "won't" for the revival did open up some interesting challenges for our cast.

It's a bit ironic that for all the abuse she endured from Dr. Cox, Elliott has a propensity for sharply worded barbs directed at the new crop of interns.  It is to her credit that she recognized this trait and does take steps to mitigate this behavior.

Speaking of Dr. Cox, the season ended with the erascibly grumpy doctor being brought down low by a diagnosis of a terminal condition. And he wants J.D. to be the doctor to help him thought it.

If the new Scrubs struggled with anything, it was balancing the classic cast (J.D., Turk, Elliott and the recurring Carla and Cox) with the new gang of interns.  

As I write this, I am hard pressed to remember their names.

To Wikipedia? To Wikipedia!!

• Dr. Samantha "Sam" Tosh, a medical intern who often uses social media to solve medical problems
• Dr. Asher Green, an optimistic but weak-willed British medical intern.
• Dr. Blake Lewis, a stoic, loner medical intern.
• Dr. Amara Hadi, a surgical intern who has a romantic "thing" going on with Asher.
• Dr. Dashana Trainor, a surgical intern who respects and admires Turk, and in whom Turk sees a younger version of himself

OK, now I remember them and I like them well enough, particularly Asher and Amara.  I expect I'll know them better in season 2 as I hope the show  handles the classic cast/new cast balance better.

Coming back for another go 'round is Malcolm In the Middle.

Malcolm in the Middle: Life's Still Unfair is a 4 episode mini-series bringing the cast back for the occasion of the 40th wedding anniversary party for Hal and Lois.

Malcolm attests to having a happy life with his daughter Leah and girlfriend Tristan. A Harvard graduate, Malcolm runs a charity food organization.  Malcolm credits his contentment to keeping the hell away from his birth family.  

His parents have NO idea he has a teenage daughter.

Leah has inherited Malcolm's intelligence, social awkwardness and his ability to break the fourth wall.  

With the 40th wedding anniversary coming up, Lois is demanding Malcolm's presence and he's running out of excuses.  When Lois and Hal show up on Malcolm's doorstep to demand he account for himself, the whole house of cards comes tumbling down.

Malcolm's secrets ran both ways.  Besides keeping his current life cut off from his birth family, Leah and Tristan had no idea this whole family even existed.   

Malcolm insists keeping this distance between these two parts of his life is necessary for this happiness and sanity but it seems that a lot of his stress is self-inflicted.  Yeah, his family's crazy but everybody's family is crazy.  

Side note: we watched episode 4 before we saw episode 3. We let a couple of weeks slide by after we watched episode 2 and we went back into the Hulu to watch the next episode, we did not realize it kicked us to episode 4 instead of 3.   

Some stuff didn't make sense. 

1. When did Lois break her leg?
2. How did Malcolm wind up at the anniversary party?
3. What are Tristan's secrets she's talking about?

So we went back to episode 3 after we finished #4.

1. Car accident at the end of episode 3.
2. Leah and Tristan literally kidnapped Malcolm.
3. Tristan confessed her secret past: she was once charged with attempted murder.  (What? Don't worry, it's all good.) 

Even with some stuff out of order, we very much enjoyed Malcolm in the Middle: Life's Still Unfair.  

For now, that is that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase.

Next week, season finales for Abbott Elementary and Happy's Place.  

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.   

Anyone For Tennis?

Before before we get into today's regularly scheduled post, a few words about yesterday's post about the attack on Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, D.C..

As I wrote in that post, "I'm worried about what will come after. I am already anticipating that Donald Trump's snivelling syncophants as well as the man himself will use this incident to fuel more anger and division."

Sadly and predictably, I have been proven right.

Long time Trump toady Rep. Jim Jordan said that it shouldn’t be “lost on anyone” that what he described as a third assassination attempt on the president happened the same week the Southern Poverty Law Center was hit with dubious fraud charges.  😟

Donald Trump seems to be criticizing the family of shooting suspect Cole Tomas Allen.... I think, if you can parse this sentence: "That family knew that he had difficulty, and his family seemed to be, I think, they spent a lot of time with his family, his family said he had big difficulty.  Maybe they should have reported him a little bit more strongly, probably, but it's a hard thing to do, I guess."  😕

Trump tried to pin an alleged anti-Christian bias to Allen's manifesto of grievances against the Trump administration. "When you read his manifesto, he hates Christians, that's one thing for sure.  It was a religious thing, it was strongly anti-Christian."  😲

OK, let's get on with today's regularly scheduled post about some Trump fuckery against women.

This should be ever so much fun.

___________________________________

Hooray for the players of the Georgia Bulldogs women's tennis team who won the NCAA Division 1 title in 2025! 

Cheers for the women who made this accomplishment possible:

• Anastasiia Lopata
• Mai Nirundorn
• Aysegul Mert
• Sarah Branicki
• Alexandra Vecic
• Tatum Buffington
• Guillermina Grant
• Haley Gaudette
• Sofia Rojas
• Mell Reasco
• Hayden Mulberry

You amazing women deserve accolades for your remarkable achievement with a visit to the White House! 

C'mon out here, ladies and let's take a look at you!

Where is the Georgia Bulldogs women's tennis team?

Hold on, I think I can see them! 

Yep, there they are, in the background behind some dudes in suits.

Well, who are THOSE guys? 

Well, the one in the middle of the shot is Donald Trumop and the rest of those guys are coaches and support staff for the the Georgia Bulldogs women's tennis team.

Give it up y'all for...

• Georgia deputy athletic director Ford Williams
• Athletic director Josh Brooks
• Head coach Drake Bernstein
• Associate head coach Jarryd Chaplin
• Assistant coach Will Reynolds

Because these MEN are the REAL heroes for winning the NCAA Division 1 title for WOMEN's tennis?

To quote Donald Trump, "No more Mister Nice Guy!"

What the FUCK is going on here? 

What kind of mysogonistic sexist BULLSHIT is this?

Has anyone ever seen a sport team photo that put coaches and support staff front and center in front of the actual team?

Can Li'l Donnie not rein in his ego mania for one single photo op in deference to his guests in the White House?

What is with this raging disrespect for this team? 

Which by the way goes beyond just the photo.

When Trump entered the room, he personally greeted and shook the hands of each of the men but only waved from a distance to the actual athletes who won the goddam title. 

Donald Trump's disdain for women made manifest in one event.

There's a reason most women's sport teams have declined invitations to the White House under Donald Trump.  

Trump's antagonism towards women is broadly evident.

In talking to the press, der Führer is frequently hostile to female journalists, insulting their intelligence, their appearance, telling them to shut up.  

And going back to sports for a moment, consider this sequence of events at this year's Winter Olympics in Milano Coertina.

The US women’s hockey team wins Gold and there's silence from Trump's White House.

The US men’s hockey team wins Gold and  der Führer himself is on the phone to congratulate them on their victory and invited them to the White House.  

And while on the call, Trump complained that he would need to invite the women's team too or he'll get in trouble.   

Trump begrudgingly extended an invite to the women's team to visit the White House and they declined the invitation. 

The US women’s hockey team cited scheduling conflicts for declining the invite which is a nice way of saying "we've got better places to be".  

They deserved better than to be in the disrespectful company of the chairman of the "he-man woman haters club".  

A disrespect experienced firsthand by the players of the Georgia Bulldogs women's tennis team.