Show Notes
Beam me up…Rocky!? Critical Darlings is back, from outer space, in our new feed, talking about the first blockbuster of the year. Project Hail Mary, directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller for Amazon, is a family-friendly science fiction film about Ryan Gosling on a risky space mission with a cute alien pal. The movie is a critical and commercial success and feels livelier than so many would-be blockbusters. But what is it about Hail Mary that works where last year’s Gosling-led The Fall Guy failed? Is this the return of the ’80s-era cute puppet friend movie? Is Gosling the hottest middle school teacher ever?
Alison and Richard also get into the film itself, with sidebars on Gosling and Lord and Miller’s filmographies, and dig into Amazon’s upcoming film slate, James Bond, and whether the studio could become a significant player in a post-Paramount-merger landscape. Finally, we check in on the vibes around The Mandalorian and Grogu and Alison’s newest crush, Rotta the Hutt.
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Critical Darlings is going LIVE at The Savannah Film Festival!
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In this bonus episode: After a month of festival hopping, we're back in the studio to discuss the fall festival season, its big premieres, and paint a very rough picture of how award season is shaping up. But first, we take a question from the mailbag to demystify the fall festival circuit and how these giant star-studded events actually work.