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Film Curious is a movie review podcast that takes a step back from the constant media consumption to discover and ponder great films across genres and time. A podcast where we let our intrigue guide us and are not afraid to explore whatever films pique our interest.
To all you film lovers, casual theatergoers, at-home movie watchers, and streaming scrollers out there, think of Film Curious as your gateway into any and every kind of movie. One that doesn’t gatekeep but doesn’t shy away from respect for the craft either. So, take a dip, the water’s fine…
This is a movie
that could have worked with him, too.
He’s great.
Why am I blanking on his name, Jesus.
Channing Tatum?
Yeah, I could see Channing Tatum
in this movie, actually.
Really easily.
I don't think I would enjoy it
nearly as much.
I'll be honest, I don't know.
It'd still be fun.
Yeah, I think it actually...
I don’t know about the emotional punches.
Funnier, I think.
Yeah, yeah,
it would be a straight up comedy.
Hello all you film lovers,
casual theater goers,
at home movie watchers and streaming
scrollers out there!
You're listening to Film Curious,
the podcast that invites you
to let your intrigue guide you and explore
great films across genres and time.
At least that's what I'll be doing.
I'm Ashley Bernhardt, and this episode
I'm joined by my good friend
Pete Tedone to dive
into a fairly new release.
You may have heard of it. Project
Hail Mary.
This heart pounding and heartwarming film
may be Amazon MGM Studios most ambitious
project yet,
being its first major blockbuster
with a budget of $248 million.
Its story is based on another book
by the same guy who wrote The Martian,
Andy Weir, as well as the same
screenwriter, Drew Goddard.
It's directed by the duo
brought you the beloved Sony
animated Spider-Verse movies
Phil Lord and Chris Miller.
The film, starring Ryan Gosling and Sandra
Huller, follows a scientist
who wakes up alone on a spaceship
with no recollection of how he got there.
As his memory returns,
he uncovers a mission
to stop a mysterious substance
from killing Earth's sun,
and an unexpected friendship
may be the key to saving the planet
from an eternal ice age.
So join us
as we explore the film Project Hail Mary.
I'd like to introduce my good friend,
cousin through marriage, and one of the
most knowledgeable and insightful people
I personally know when it comes to film.
If he will be so kind to me,
he will hopefully be on this show often.
You'll see him pop up from time to time.
I have Pete Tedone here.
Pete will probably not plug himself,
so I will.
If he will allow
me to compliment, compliment
him. He is an immensely talented
photographer.
I think he has some of the best eye
for composition.
I've seen.
And he claims it's easy.
And I have words for you.
No, sir. It is not.
It's not easy.
You are very good at it.
I when I see your, short films,
they are incredible.
So when he has the opportunity.
To be a filmmaker, it's
an incredible, podcaster.
So he. Hosts a delightfully entertaining.
Theme park podcast.
But yet he is still broken.
So go out there.
I think if you're not following his work,
look him up. He.
It's definitely worth your time
with all that said.
You're welcome. With all that said.
Pete. Hi.
How's the morning treating you?
And anything you like to say
to the folks out there.
About yourself or correct any.
Inaccuracies that I may have?
I did nothing to say about myself.
No, you were not on the, Yeah. No.
Nothing to say on that end, but thank you.
Yeah. I'm excited to be here.
I'm happy you finally,
you know, that you're doing this and that.
I'm here to to chat with you
about a couple of things today, and.
Yeah, let's get to it.
Yeah.
So we're going to be doing Project Hail
Mary, and that will be what we start with.
I mean, we'll just be honest with you
behind the scenes sort of thing.
We're probably we're recording project
Hail Mary and the drama.
At the same time.
So, they'll most likely be separated,
episode wise, but, they might leak.
Into each other
if you've noticed that. So just.
Listen to both episodes. Watch
both episodes.
I feel like we're getting back on track,
where every year
there is a pretty
big summer blockbuster movie,
and it
it's feeling more and more, common again,
which is nice because there was,
you know, the everything with Covid
and, how it affected theater going.
You know, we're still feeling it really.
And, it's now so I don't
I couldn't tell you what it was
last year or the year before, but it,
it feels like once or twice a year
everyone is at the movies, whether it be,
you know, when it was Barb
being Oppenheimer or something.
And apparently Gosling
could be at the center of a lot of this.
It's it's it's just starting
to feel like more common for everyone.
Went to go see this movie again,
not as common
as it used to be, like in the,
you know, the heydays of like summer
movies in the 90s and stuff like that.
But it it feels like it's coming back
a little bit.
So, it's cool, it's good.
You know?
Yeah.
I watched, it had a full theater.
It was, was packed out
and I think it was a Wednesday night
when we ended up actually going to see it.
And it was fun. The crowd. Reactions.
And that movie definitely works
for crowd reactions,
where you're not worried if you're going
to miss something or someone's going to.
And it wasn't like they were distracting
reactions.
I've noticed that too,
is like coming back to the movies
and we've been going all through until,
you know, Covid, let us we would be.
The only people in the theater. Yeah.
But now it seems that, movie etiquette.
I've noticed is coming back where, like,
there's not, like, side not for, you.
Know, I mean, maybe this was like
a special showing of Project
Hail Mary that I.
Usually, I mean, Hail Mary was fine.
I also usually go at the most inopportune
times for other people to go on purpose.
You know, I'll go. Yeah.
To the 1030 show on Sunday night,
you know,
which when you're talking about a movie
that's nearly two hours and 40 minutes
and you got to say 30 minutes of nonsense,
that you have to sit through, free movie
that you're talking about
getting back home at 2 a.m. for me.
That's
if I got to wake up at seven the next day.
Most people avoid those later shows.
So generally that happens.
But how it was filmed, I do remember that.
Yeah.
And yeah, I don't remember
anyone really chattering about the movie.
Doesn't
give you a whole lot of moments of pause.
No. Which is interesting for.
A two hour movie. Yeah. 47 minute runtime.
That it doesn't, so
I guess, you mentioned Gosling.
Actually, I do.
Want to grab on that, Ryan Gosling.
I thought it was a really great
performance, actually, I think he did
carry it.
I mean, he has to carry a huge chunk
of the movie because of his, you know,
I guess he's one.
Well, yeah, he you got to get into small.
He's ugly. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, here's,
I guess spoiler warning, which I think
at this point it's,
the, the rocks out of the bag.
But yeah, yeah, he,
he has to interact with the rock alien
for most of the film.
He's not so. Rock. Thank goodness.
Just Rocky.
Yeah.
There was a lot of.
I'm so off track, I have.
I had noticed there was a bunch of film.
References and homages.
In in Project Hail Mary.
Yeah, yeah.
No, no, no. I'm sorry. Go ahead.
No. Okay. Well, I I'll.
Finish my Ryan Gosling thought before we,
we jump into that.
Because I realize I'm off track.
But I was thinking about it
and how you mentioned like, oh,
the last big film, you know, was a
Gosling was in the film, Gosling.
De Gosling.
We only had Ryan.
Yeah. And it kind of made me think that.
I think Ryan Gosling is proving
that he puts butts in seats.
Because I think the fall guy
actually performed pretty well,
too, with Emily Blunt.
That comedy.
That I was actually just
thinking of that movie,
and I could not remember if it made a lot.
I'm going to look it up right now because,
it didn't.
It didn't.
It didn't do banger.
No, not at all.
Actually,
it only approximated about 181 million
against like a buck 40 of a million,
$1 million production.
But the thing is, the reason I remember
is that the only reason that I remember
the box office thing was people
use that as like,
oh, well, you know, he's not really,
you know, a star.
And I don't think it really has
anything to do with that.
It's like the movie was good.
People liked it, but it didn't like
it wasn't overly unique.
I guess maybe to like, an audience
who was wondering, am I going to go spend
three and a half,
you know, three hours of my day
and a lot of money
to go to the theater? You know, that
it's just a specific
type of movie that that'll work for that
every now and then.
And I don't know if it's just on purpose
for Jesus.
The timing of this movie coming out
so close to, you know, a couple weeks
later, we're launching out to the moon
for the first time in over 30 years.
You got to think that
that might be a marketing thing.
I was just like,
can you time that was that a I because I
really didn't know until two weeks ago
that that was happening.
This you know, this past week.
And, so I was wondering like,
oh, dude, was that on purpose?
But yeah,
I mean, it's going to get tested again
because in two years
he'll be leading Starfighter,
new Star Wars film and
does that matter?
Like, does it matter
who's in the lead role for that.
In a Star Wars film?
I don't know though. But yeah, I would.
Does it have the no.
One and I don't know if it's no.
One or was it just bad receive
all of solo.
Solo was it was a tough sell for people
because everyone is so stuck in.
Well, it's gotta be Harrison Ford.
How come you pay for it?
And, there was, you know, the mix up,
the changing of directors,
which, ironically, was Lord Miller,
you know, originally
for the or the directors stuff for solo.
Yeah.
And they were then, you know,
Ron Howard came in and did whatever
the second half of that
or last third of that filming took place.
But yeah, now you're going to have,
Gosling leaving one out.
But, you know,
you have you're going to be able
to save from the director of Deadpool
and Wolverine, you know,
and stuff like that, that that will help
a lot more people be like,
I know that person, that director,
and I know Ryan Gosling.
And it'll I mean,
I guess a lot of it will also depend upon
what people react to with Mando and Grogu,
that there's so many factors
that go into whether or not
someone goes to the movies that I.
I don't think that there's
I think it's very hard
to say that there's like that Tom cruise
factor of the 80s and 90s
when like if the man was in the movie,
most of the time, people went,
it didn't matter.
I don't know how many people exist
like that anymore.
You know, it's not Brad Pitt anymore.
I don't think it ever really was.
But Gosling, this is a huge,
you know, financially,
you know, for a poll, this is a huge win.
And when you combine it with Barbie,
you know, he's
sort of got to where he could say,
you know, in la la la la land for its,
you know, for its budget
made a shit ton of money.
So yeah, there's a, you know, there's
a lot of different factors into that. But
yeah I guess so that.
Yeah.
Yeah I mean even this isn't
who knows what the actual.
I would have to look it up the,
how. Well, the gray man did,
which is, you know, it was,
it was a streaming on Netflix or,
you know,
I didn't want to know, to be honest,
I think a lot of people did,
because it's getting a second one.
So, I don't know.
I don't know that streaming is,
is different than a, than a box.
Streaming is like
I mean, this is like just my I don't.
Know how they're even. Calculating.
Jason Momoa has been in like a hundred
films and they're all on streaming
and he's in like 17 different
TV shows, Apple TV shows.
I don't know any of them.
Can't say I've watched them.
But I'm very happy that he's as all over
the place as he could possibly be.
Yeah, because you don't.
The Gray man doesn't have numbers.
Right.
I, I did not hear great things about that.
I don't.
I. Particularly like the Russos,
outside of, like,
a couple of Avengers movies.
So that just, you know, You mentioned.
Yeah, we can drop it.
I yeah. I'm looking at it. I'm like.
I'm like. There's so many people in here.
It's like a Dreamworks animated film
where they just get every one possible
to voice anything.
Yeah.
That's what this feels like.
That is.
Sidetrack aside.
We could go on and on
and on and film tangents and.
Yeah. So back to Project Hail Mary. Yes.
And then talking about,
you know, box office numbers, production.
It was 200 and I wrote this down and
I'm going to get the number 248 million.
And so was Amazon,
MGM Studios first major,
blockbuster that they,
they put money into, like real money.
But it also makes me a little curious.
Because I wonder.
I mean, I looked into,
the production of it
and the set design and,
a lot of it is analog.
Rocky is house. Puppetry house. Yeah.
I guess an even half is like, puppetry,
an animatronic they used at times.
And then they've got the CGI
aspect of him, too.
So, I mean, yeah, he's,
he has a huge rig.
The, the puppeteering is, the same guy
who voices him who is, James or he's.
Yeah.
So I mean, yeah, I guess you
have that huge
and the set is all like analog.
Greg, why am I blanking on here?
Greg Frazier, the cinematographer was
very adamant about he needed that cockpit
that they made to be easily
taken apart
so that he could film from every angle.
Yeah. And get the shot that he wanted.
So that was, I'll put that in the show
notes is a really interesting video
that, they did was like, is it Adam?
Is it Savage? Who's the guy.
Who does the like, debunks the,
oh, theories or, Adam Savage?
Yeah, I follow him on YouTube.
I like that aspect of it.
Oh, I have the link I'll put.
In the show notes,
but it's a very interesting.
He was talking to,
the set designer and everything.
Yeah, it's it's Adam Savage, all right.
So it's
it was intense what they had to do.
And like, every, every button
could light up with a different LED.
It was impressive.
So thinking about it, I go, okay. Yeah.
I mean,
I guess that requires a pretty huge budget
in addition
to all of the CGI space scenes.
That they then have to do. Yeah.
So there's that. But then.
I look up, you know, Dune, In comparison
and they made Dune for 190.
Million.
So the difference in, in the production
kind of, is curious to me.
Yeah.
I mean, it's sometimes I think
no matter what, it's always expensive.
I think that there's a lot more rigging
and studio work and more hands on.
I don't know,
maybe it's something like that.
You know, the crazy part of it,
as a viewer,
I don't give us, like, okay, like for it.
Was it good?
You know, it's good. Yeah.
It's it's never like Dune looks great.
I know people there.
You get some people now like,
oh the Brown movie gets takes place
that goddamn desert.
It's Yeah.
That's it's there's this, there's.
This like over compensation on some,
some commentaries
nowadays where it's like,
oh, movies aren't colorful.
I, there's no country for old men.
It doesn't need to be like.
It has to be
what that film needs to look like.
So I never really understood that
that whole thing that people have,
obsessively about that.
But, yeah, it's it's, hand making stuff
is expensive,
you know, it's expensive doing CGI.
And there are aspects of Dune
you could not build
and maybe nowadays or,
you know, you could,
but it would be a lot of model work
and it wouldn't look the same.
And all this other stuff,
and it would probably be maybe
at the end of the day, more expensive
because of the time I did
and the amount of if something breaks,
you have to rebuild this
entire model or,
you know, rebuild this entire contraption.
And even Dune uses,
you know, a lot of models and stuff,
or they just build,
you know, the, the copter thing.
Yeah.
But yeah, movies are expensive.
It's a nightmare.
Absolute nightmare.
But, you know, it's when.
You see it work,
you know, this is making money.
You're like, oh, thank God.
And then you look into how they did it
and you're like, it was mainly manual.
It was people actually making
these things, designing these things.
Shooting it with the actor,
being able to interact
with the thing that you think is
that's always got to be helpful.
Yeah.
There's there's a kind of heartbreaking
clip, of Ian McKellen.
And I'll put in big quotes on set for,
The Hobbit,
where he is acting alone
at a table where they're supposed to be,
you know, Bilbo
and all the dwarves, and he gets he,
like, has a bit of an emotional breakdown
because he's depressed.
Because he was.
He says he's like, this is not what I do.
It's like, I, I,
I like performing with people.
And he's,
you know, literally on a green screen
table and everything by himself.
So, yeah, I mean, it's, it's
it can mean everything for the performer,
you know, to actually be able
to, to bounce
off of people and in live time and seeing,
you know, for Gosling's
character, Grace, to see Rocky
and react to him in real time.
If, you know, Ortiz decides
to do something with the movements of that
puppet in the moment, like an actual actor
would get to do on the moment,
the set, you know, it's a it's
got to be just night
and day, for, for dealing with it,
for, for some people.
Yeah.
Well, yeah, I'm
hoping it's the movies are going
kind of back the other way where we.
Everything was CGI for a little bit, and
now it's like, no, we need we need both.
And you know, it's now it's a, an added
value doing the, the CGI to it.
But we'll see what happens.
I mean, you. Can't really give.
Yeah Hollywood a whole lot.
I also I don't think that either
one of them is a guarantee for anything.
I, I don't think really
ultimately it matters because
just playing movies that are very CG,
you know, reliant and they don't or they
and they make a shitload of money.
I mean, avatar is extremely CGI,
and it's still,
without anyone kind of noticing.
Makes $1 billion every time
another one comes out, which is wild.
But that that is what happens.
And then, you know, smaller crafted movies
sometimes how hard it sells
to people because they want this,
you know,
the see, one of the the greatest things
that Project Hail Mary have for it
in promoting
it was it's very attractive visually.
You know, there's there's a lot of scenes
where you can point and go like,
that's a hell of a poster.
That's a hell of a poster.
You know,
there's a lot of stuff like that.
Remember gravity, you know,
had that a lot less flashy visually,
but it had this image that was able to
you knew you knew what that movie
was going to be like.
You know, you were going to see gravity
because space is scary shit,
and you're going to see Hail
Mary because it was this,
oh, I remember The Martian.
That was fun. This seems like that.
And Ryan Gosling
looks like he's having a great time and,
you know, space adventure and it's fun.
And like, it's
a lot of good hooks to get into people.
It's every Andy Weir has that.
You need two for two.
You know, between The Martian and this, I
you know, I can't
it's incredible.
Like how similar
and how different both of those films are.
Yeah. Yeah.
You know, I mean they kind of it's
you know, how safdies,
you know, now,
now that they've separated also
one of the big critiques of, you know,
I hear, you know, on Mardi Supreme
and I agree with it,
is it's another frantic white guy
who's a piece of shit that we maybe root
for at the end and maybe don't.
And you could look at this
as, like, Lost Man in space,
and it's by the same writer and all that,
and it has.
And by the way, he's
charming as hell and very funny.
And it has a lot of the same elements,
but that is kind of where it ends,
you know, the,
the whole actions within
the film are very different.
And I think that actually Lord
Miller were aware of that,
and I had never read the book.
So actually,
I wonder if it's in the book like that.
But the way that the movie is presented
to you,
where you're jumping
back and forth in time,
it was not.
That's something The Martian doesn't do,
you know?
So right off the bat,
you're out there, you're in space.
You starting off right,
you know, right off the bat
figuring out what's going on.
You don't know what's going on.
So it was a good way
of separating those two things.
So it didn't feel overly familiar
to a viewer possibly.
You know, The Martian. So.
So how old is The Martian at this point?
Does anyone, you know really remember
2015, 2015?
So, you know, 11 years ago.
So that's crazy to say. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
So I guess to,
I mean, like
we can on so many different tangent,
but I'll touch on the image thing.
I noticed that you noticed actually,
I had noticed it in theaters,
but I didn't want to, like, interrupt
and do anything loud.
And I was like, oh, you know, my
my spouse.
Will realize it.
I'm sure he'll realize it.
And he.
When he's first, communicating
with Rocky, it's through, like the music.
It's like a musicality,
almost language, sound language.
And it's it's the close encounters.
Of the the third kind.
When they interact
with the aliens, it's the.
Same.
Yeah, yeah.
So there's that.
And then obviously Rocky himself.
Is a film reference and.
Rocky's made his name's Adrian.
And so I mean they're fun.
It's fun things.
Yeah I was fine usually, you know.
Hey do you remember this movie stuff?
It's not something I'm a big fan of,
but it's sit this one.
And the bigger thing for me
was the Close Encounters
nod is a
you can look at it as an early reveal
for where that movie's going to go.
In the end.
Because, I mean, can we can
we talk about it's okay.
Right.
But everyone a movie by now, right?
And also we're I think I.
Get it the, the spoiler tag
and I'll make sure that it's, it's there.
So you know
spoilers also for Close Encounters,
which is, you know, over 45 years old,
almost 50 years old.
Yeah.
Healy, you know, Dreyfuss in that film,
Liza's family,
you don't think about it at the time.
Right?
But Richard Dreyfuss,
after kissing another woman,
like, leaves his wife
and kids to go live with the aliens for.
We don't know if he ever comes back
or anything like that.
We have no idea.
And in this crossing,
Binks, that same choice
where he does not come back to Earth,
he could.
I mean, he could, but he is.
I mean,
the idea is he's also doing it to save,
Rocky.
But yeah, they they wound up actually
making the same choice also.
Yeah.
So I think while it's a nod, it was it's
also a little bit of a tip of the hat
for if,
if you pay attention enough, you're like,
oh, these guys are true.
They have the same finish.
Yeah. Yeah.
I didn't think about you know what?
You don't even think about that
in Close Encounters.
Like, yeah, he just leaves. Oh, no.
I mean, his whole
his whole life is miserable, right?
But, you know.
I'm not saying, like, abandon
your children, but.
I don't see any reason for him
to stick around either.
He in that thing, that's always something
that Spielberg says.
If I would have made that movie
as an older person,
I don't know if I make the same movie
because I would have been
a lot more conscious of that decision.
And I don't know if I would have agreed
with it at the time.
But for that character
in that time, yeah, he's going
right.
And, and so does Gosling.
And what's also funny is I remember
when you, one of the big things about
when they wanted to do,
you know, Spielberg wanted to go back
and touch up some scenes after the film
was that was a success there.
Like the production company was like,
all right, the studio was like, all right,
but you got to show us
the inside of the ship.
And for Spielberg, it was like you.
That gives the whole goddamn ending out,
because instead of wondering
and having that mystery
about what it is, I'm going to show you,
and in front of a camera, you do, right?
You see the planet
that that Gosling is on,
but you don't because
he's living in a simulation of that.
So it's a real fun way of swerving around
that and
and not getting into that,
that issue of showing too much, you know.
Yeah, I think the that actually.
Was one of the.
The sticking points for me that I'm like,
maybe it is, it explains it in the novel.
Maybe there's, deeper character
development of of grace.
I know that he's.
You know.
It's we have an ex-girlfriend
that he's not with anymore.
He doesn't have friends
or family. Is like the line.
It's kind of almost like a throwaway
line of like, you don't mean anything,
and then we're supposed to.
Okay, then make the the jump. That
he wants.
No human. Connection. Ever.
And, you know, is
is not going to come back to Earth
after you couldn't get him to leave Earth.
Not that I, you know, it's
there's enough storytelling
to get us to the point of, like, okay,
he had to be brave.
Learn.
Just like, crave for. Yeah, it's
not. I went with that way too quickly.
I just trust that he's going.
Makes you be.
Brave. Or.
Okay.
But, you know.
Oh, man.
I'm. I'm so off track.
No. So you were saying, you know, that.
Oh, that he would leave, right?
Well, I mean, we we know now
that he gets to a certain point where.
His journey with Rocky kind of
gives him connection and gives.
Him a reason to, fight for something,
you know, to.
Exist, to stay.
But I don't know if I believe that,
you know, he's never.
I mean, yes, I guess.
At this point he woke up,
however many years later, he doesn't.
Really know what's happening
back on Earth, I guess.
Why would you go back to.
A planet. That might.
You know, it looked like at the end.
With, with Sandra Haller that it's.
Yeah, she's in the ice cave. Yeah.
And something you're supposed to take it
that like she's not trolling
around the North Pole.
She's like off the coast of
in a deep freeze, you know, or something.
Yeah. Yeah.
Which means a lot of people have that.
But, but the thing
is, though, yes, I agree with you.
They don't.
They don't give me.
I didn't feel like
this is a guy who, at his
if the opportunity arose, he was like,
yeah, I'm never going to go back to Earth.
But they did get around that
because he can't really get back
because it's it was either
let you know Rocky die from essentially
like the human equivalent of radiation
poisoning and carbon
dioxide poisoning.
And because of that, it's
just the going back and forth.
He wouldn't physically make the trip.
So they while they give him the choice,
he makes the choice based out of affection
and out of friendship.
So I do think they stay skate around
that as well.
The movie does a really good job
of skating around things.
Just getting it to say it was kind of the
theme, a bit of like, yeah,
oh, happy, happy dance, dance
like dude. Yeah.
But you know,
but right now I think, I think that's,
I think that's why people reacted to it.
So much because Jesus Christ kind of need
a fucking w when you look at it
until like just without an asterisk w
right now, because it's just not good.
No one's having a good time
unless you're an awful person. So.
So I think that's a big part of it.
Like what I do, I do have a sticking point
with the movies are actually.
So, to kind of go
on, you know, you had one.
So I did have one.
I, there was a maybe one too many of
and then this went wrong, moments where
it just was like, okay, all right.
Can we can we wrap it up a little bit near
it near the end?
And one of them, though,
was very odd to me because I watch this.
This movie starts with an unconscious
waking up, Gosling being force fed food
and this and that, which was very funny,
if you remember, back in the old days
of the internet,
the Ryan Gosling will eat his cereal bit
that, do you remember that?
I don't I'm going
to. Have to look it up and I'm going.
Okay, so there.
Was this whole saying
that there was this guy I forget
because he passed, because he wound up
getting cancer or something like that.
There was this this cat who made a series
of videos of him in front of a TV
was a Ryan Gosling movie playing
and him trying to feed him cereal.
It sounds vaguely familiar.
And in the scene
it would always be Ryan Gosling,
like moving his head
away, like quickly or something like that.
And it was, you know, Gosling
won't eat his cereal.
And actually, I remember after the guy
passed, Gosling made a video of him
eating a cereal, as,
like a nod to,
you know, as a, a little tribute to him.
So anyways, we start off with that,
and there's this ship
I sort of,
you know, voice that interacts with him.
And the minute he sits down in his seat,
he it's like pilot initiated,
you know, all this stuff.
But then
later
in the movie, when the ship is, like,
going to rip itself apart,
he has to manually slip a switch
together.
And since he can't do something else,
it's like, why do you have to do this?
Like, why isn't the ship
just being, like, initiated and that's it?
And not letting itself
almost get destroyed?
But that's movies, right?
You just have, you know,
you have those moments happening.
You like movies. Right.
I mean, I assume.
Yeah. Yeah, I just do it.
There are moments like that and I'm like,
we are adapting this from a novel.
And not to not that
that's like a full excuse, but it,
you know, it's like, okay,
if you've got certain questions about,
you know,
how he's translating the language,
if he's, you know, translating it
through Rocky's.
Sounds and why is it why.
Every time is it Rocky.
Sounds,
you know, being produced when he's.
You know, to translate
and that that could drive.
I was like, all right, just let it go.
Just let. It go.
Like, that's don't think about it.
They're not going to put it in chime.
Sounds like when over dialog
like that's not
how film works
to make a nice experience for you right.
So there's like turn your brain off.
At least for this movie.
It was like, don't worry about it.
The sci fi aspect.
Yeah. The gritty. Of it.
And yeah, just go with it.
Like they also they explain it,
you know, they explain that,
you know, he's worked on this now
translator which is essentially,
you know, we we don't need to see
the middle ground of that.
No. You know, it's it's funny
this came up yesterday.
Hunt for Red
October had had one of the all time great.
Like, don't worry about that.
Where you're on this Russian submarine
and everyone in the first couple of scenes
is speaking Russian.
But then when you go to Sean Connery's
cabin and he's only
with one other
officer, Connery starts reading a book.
I think there's a book of poetry,
and the camera goes in real tight,
all the way close up, like onto his mouth.
And then he starts speaking English,
and then the camera backs up and everyone
except for Sam, you know, who actually
still speaks in a Russian accent?
Everyone just speaks
in their regular voice.
But you know that they're speaking Russian
to each other.
Right?
It's like it's,
you know, you the the towel of like, okay.
Yeah.
You know, it's for your brain to be like,
this is what's happening now.
We're going to get an easier
viewing experience.
They had to do that in two
because technically, every time he spoke
to anyone, there's like a half
hour of time in between every sentence.
They let you know that.
And then the rest of the film is cut
as if it's me and you talking right now.
Yeah, I mean, it's it's.
That sort of thing of like
if I basically said to myself, because,
you know, I have a nagging brain.
Sometimes when it comes to like, it's not.
That I thought
I, I'm not trying to find loopholes.
I'm definitely not. That kind of person.
I just was like, have all these questions
about the alien and about I was like.
So I guess they have
a very similar culture to Earth.
Then if,
you know, we're getting to the point
of really talking and understanding
each other.
And I was like, don't worry about that.
Like if you care about about that,
maybe read the novel and see if it like,
addresses gets a little bit more into the
the detail of it.
But yeah, it's like,
that's not the purpose of the movie.
I'm going to guess. And say it does not.
It don't.
You don't think so? I'll tell. It.
No, I don't think so.
Because I think we right.
Like a movie.
I think that's
why his books have been so far,
so successful in this adaptation
is because it's it's
written in a cinematic fashion.
It's, you know, it really
works, towards getting that because
it I don't think it concerns itself
with that.
You know, it's it's interesting
how Project Camilleri
simultaneously like hard sci
fi in some of the explanations
and how this works and that works,
and then in other aspects where it's
more fantastical,
it gives you just enough that you're like,
And then that's it.
And then you just don't worry
about that shit
because it doesn't matter
how the fuck they communicate,
it matters that you care about
what they're communicating to each other.
You know, that's
your stuff is just it's just noise.
It's just detail.
But if you don't care
about their connection, nothing matters.
Like the whole movie doesn't matter.
That's that is incredibly true.
I mean, you get only I was going to say
I think one of the highlights for me,
is, is Sandra Heller, her character.
And she could
that character could be so monotone.
You could feel like
that's an underdeveloped character
in anybody else's hands.
And she she makes you
you feel like this is a real woman
with feelings,
and she's not just this stone cold.
I have no emotions.
I'm going to save the planet.
This is a mission she must go through.
Like you see that she has she.
The performance is spectacular.
That you see, that she has underlying
feelings about the actions
that she's taking.
Yeah, just not overtly expressing,
to who she's interacting with because
she's gotta keep her shit together.
That's a lot of pressure, you know?
So I.
End of the day, she she knows that she has
to complete what she is trying to do.
I loved her.
Walk us on the carrot.
When do. And doing karaoke.
Yeah, actually, I'm sure, like.
80% through the song,
she's like, that's enough now
and just leaves, like,
really enjoying that moment that.
Because if there was, like,
this big emotional
end up to that track,
it wouldn't have felt right.
But the way that she's like, okay,
we've had fun
and it's like, and, and I don't want to be
the center of this, like,
just not really.
You know, I am already the center of this.
On another level. I can do that.
I don't want to be this type
of, center for very long.
Yeah. So she really.
Yeah.
Interested me as a character.
But I can't say that there's
a Sandra Haller performance
that doesn't captivate me.
Yeah. She's kind of an all timer.
Yeah.
You know the movie
the movie had me thinking something
and it didn't it didn't happen.
It's good because it wouldn't
have really made much sense.
But when he comes to and his two,
co travelers are dead,
and then later in the movie
they're referring to like, well, hey,
what's going to happen?
Because this is a one way trip,
what happens when we accomplish our goal
and the two others are like,
we're going to forget
to like all of ourselves in a comfortable,
fun way, you know?
But we're going to off ourselves.
And when they said
that, part of me was wondering,
did they already accomplish their mission?
And he just didn't kill himself.
And they did.
And he doesn't remember it.
But very a good question.
I was wondering, I was like,
oh, is that going to be something that's
revealed like this reveal
which I hate, you know,
everything's going to be a twist
because that's insane.
But my brain paused on that for a second,
or I was like, is he going to find out
that he already accomplished what he meant
to accomplish when he's at a moment
where he thinks he failed?
But that that didn't happen.
And that's good
because it makes all the actions.
It would make all the actions
with Rocky Point.
As well, because they both don't know why
their crew died.
You know, it's so. Yeah.
But I mean, that was a big question
of mine of, oh, what did happen to them?
But at the same time.
There is a lot of this movie
where it's like, don't worry about it.
Don't just
yeah, I mean, they're what they were
in Cryosleep for what, how many years?
30 years.
Something like that. Yeah, I asleep alien.
But you know,
they're they're on this for like.
30 years medicated coma.
Cause they awake during.
It wasn't one of them.
The the pilot of the.
No, we just had. To get them it's. Order.
They were all. Just.
No, it's alien like it is aliens.
Where they go to sleep
and the ship controls itself because it's,
you know, essentially
just going towards a destination,
the ship that then couldn't slip a switch
so it wouldn't rip itself apart.
That is really my biggest fucking thing.
Maybe
something happened to the technology.
Yeah, I meant it.
You know, it's like maybe even.
The it's it's part of the episode.
You know.
It's planet of the apes
where he leaves with six,
six or 5 or 6, astronauts.
And they completely, you know, go nowhere
because he wound up on Earth.
Spoilers for the film from 1968.
But the other ones,
like something happens, the
the seal on their
the little capsules that they're in cracks
or something due to the crash
and that introduction of outside
elements of non control
something that's what kills
the other astronauts in that movie.
And that's just that's all I thought of
in that I was like something went wrong.
And you know right
what one thing went wrong and you can't
keep people preserved for 30 years
if anything goes wrong.
So something was wrong. Right. Yeah.
The lack of the ship even being like,
oh, by the way, this is what happened.
It is weird, you know.
He has no knowledge of it.
There's no meta.
It's supposed to be keeping you in this,
this coma, right?
This induced sleep.
And it has no medical records of don't.
Yeah. Don't trust, self,
driving.
Yeah.
Because then that I guess
you could just be be careful of I, I yeah.
Because that's, that's
what happens in 2001.
You know, he, the how kills the,
the sleeping astronauts, the other 2
or 3 astronauts that are on there.
He kills all of them while they're in,
you know, suspended and, man,
whatever the fuck it would be in there.
But, yeah, he, you know,
that's how it kills him.
So, yeah, there's a lot of again,
you could look at a lot of the movie
and point at other films.
There's, there's obviously,
you know, if you threw Interstellar
and The Martian into a blender,
you got a lot of this movie.
You know, you've a lot of this movie,
leaving and never and thinking
that you're never going to come back
and then making the choice at the end
not to not to go back to Earth
because, you know, McConaughey's character
leaves, you know, he
he realizes that everything that was
his life is no longer there,
and he has no reason to stay there.
So he goes to populate a planet
with Anne Hathaway.
That's a good choice personally. And so.
With me.
Two highly attractive
people are going to repopulate Earth.
Good for them.
You know, but there's a lot of that.
And there's even the character of Rocky
and the relationship
between the two of them.
I sort of Joe Dante's the explorers
or explorers, not the explorers,
which was, what, 84, 85?
This is a blind spot for me.
I'm going to have to.
Oh, yeah, this is.
Write it. Down class.
I mean, it was a bomb.
It was everyone when they were making it,
I think the idea was like,
we're going to be the next Goonies
or something like that.
Ethan Hawke is in it. River Phoenix.
Oh, okay. And, I loved it.
Like, I watched this shit ton as a kid,
but there's a playfulness with Rocky
that that
it kind of reminded me of explorers
a bit, which was a movie
I had not thought of in a very long time.
I'm gonna write that down.
River and launch explorers as explorers.
I feel like
they actually had a sort of 4K,
and this silliness is going to make me get
explorers on 4K,
which I'm fine. Was
fine was.
So what have you been?
Pete has has told me he does not believe
in, just not streaming something.
He'll just buy it.
I tried to explain.
I try to explain a library app.
That's quite brilliant.
Now, where you get to watch
the movie is off of it for free,
because it's like your library
card, and he's.
Like, just buy it. Just.
Just what?
I got to wait.
I'm like,
for some other fucking person to return?
No. Did you know this is the.
Brilliance of this?
I'm trying to explain this library.
I like the brilliance of it is.
It's a streaming app
for the library of the movies.
And it's like you can you have a certain
amount of tickets a month, right?
And you're just, you know, waiting.
It's like.
It's just like being honest when.
I'm watching on my phone.
No, you can't see it to your TV.
It's it's just like my TV.
So I want. To get across. To them.
Crowdsourcing.
Come on.
Come on.
I do agree with myself.
I do agree with you that any any Blu ray
is is a million times
better than even the 4K streaming it.
There's the physicals.
I will advocate for that.
But in the meantime,
if you don't want to purchase
the film,
there's this great like library app.
That you can and I.
I would encourage like it used to.
That's a good resource.
I think we should update libraries.
Yes. Fitness.
But anyway, Pete will not be doing that.
People just buy it. Yeah, I well.
It's $90
right now. I can own this forever.
It's perfect.
Or you could stream it, right?
You right now
from the library up for free.
It's not you're not paying
for the streaming service.
It's it's a public service.
Okay.
That that's.
Yes we do.
And anyway, we'll wrap up
wrap up our discussion about.
Project Hail Mary.
I think I walked out of it going
it was a it was enjoyable.
But it.
Wasn't giving me a ton of like.
Brain food to chew on.
And it's not like.
A knock, though.
It's like thinking about it.
It's not a knock.
Like I found it. It
highly enjoyable, film.
You know, it's a good blockbuster.
It's a good.
I mean, I know.
It's April,
but it. Was a good summer movie.
You know, I'll put it in.
Quotes are spring,
you know, heading into the summer?
Yes. Spring. Right.
Spring break. Yeah. Is now. Yeah, yeah.
Oh, so I mean, I maybe it hit on some like
the Rocky and, I guess my final thought
is, you know, maybe the Rocky and,
Grace relationship at times was like,
overly sentimental.
But yeah, whatever.
It's a. Rock puppet.
We're
we're basically telling
a story of a rock dog.
Yeah.
So which is another interesting thing
that I won't get into
because I think about, like,
the intellect of, of the society
that has made it or like Rocky's people
have made it with this minimal technology.
And I'm like, wow,
you know, humans are a bunch of idiots.
And it's like these guys,
I don't think it's minimal technology.
I think they make it look,
I mean, because there's.
Something it's like it.
Yeah, it's like a sophisticated
it probably is more sophisticated.
And that's why I said like, oh,
because the humans are a bunch of idiots.
They can't figure out certain things.
And Rocky is like just an engineer.
So, anyway, we don't need to get into
we don't need to get to Rocky's
character backstory behavior.
I mean, if anything. It's all through,
like a translation app, so we.
Don't really know.
Yeah.
You could be like a broken language
sort of thing.
Also, you know,
it can it?
When you think of
when I come into stuff like that
where it's like, oh, this seems overly
simplified for these people.
Like, how did they do that?
It's because it's common for them.
You know,
they're they've reached that point
for thousands and thousands of years
before we did.
So for them, it's yeah,
it's like me trying to explain
what an ness's like. Yeah.
You pop the thing in plays, video game.
What else do you need to know?
You know, like that kind of a thing of
of you're talking to a child.
So you talk.
You talk like a child to a child.
I actually very cynically
during the movie,
I was like, I'm amazed
no one's made the joke more like crying.
Gosling. Because, yeah, he's.
Yeah, he's got a lot of he's
got a ton of emotional moments in this.
And I mean, it's.
No one's picked up on this.
His last name is very on the nose.
You know, the movie's called Hail
Mary Project.
Hail Mary.
His last name is Grace.
Hail Mary, full of grace.
It's that didn't click for you.
Well done.
That must be an interesting moment
that you're having right now.
Yeah, I very much enjoyed it.
And, yeah, it's it's a fun
summer blockbuster thing. And
I if you were to put it to me,
I prefer Martian.
I think, yeah.
Yeah, I probably prefer Martian.
And if we're, you know, if I
throw in other space like interstellar,
I prefer interstellar too.
But I thought this was just a blast.
It's a it's a lot of fun.
It's just a nice, good time at the movies.
And, huzzah for me.
Come on.
You know.
And it's doing well, and I love. It.
Deserves it. And it's it's. Well.
Yeah. Exactly.
I want I wonder what Lord Miller
will follow this up with now.
Well, I gotta work.
I mean, they I think they probably are
in post-production of the
the next Spider-Verse
spider.
I don't know.
Yeah.
That's, that's like 28 slated for 2027,
I think.
I mean,
I as long as it's what it should be.
Take your time.
No ones, you know what I mean?
I remember when they said like,
oh, it's going to be delayed.
I was like, that's fine, that's fine.
Just make it what you want it to be.
Yeah. Right now 2027.
So they're, you know,
probably still in production honestly.
Yeah. Made that.
They make fun. Of everything.
Let them do another Jump Street film.
You fucking cowards.
That's like them.
That's I mean I mean like legitimately
I'm like, no really.
Let them make another one. Right?
I don't know, trying to like,
tell is still,
didn't have some weird stuff.
I'm not sure. Something about.
Girlfriend manipulation or.
Some, like, crazy, I don't know.
Yeah, he did some crazy stuff, but,
yeah, it's not, you know.
So as long as you get,
you get a gambit in there or.
Okay, that's all we need.
Yeah. Everyone calls control gambit.
I don't know if I do, but
you're wrong.
We wrong
live and live in an errors.
This is a movie that could have worked
with him to let me script straight.
Blanking on his name.
Jesus, Channing Tatum.
Yeah, I guess
he Channing Tatum in this movie, actually.
Really? I don't think I would enjoy it
nearly as much.
I'll be honest, I don't know.
It's still be fun though.
Yeah, I get actually emotional punches.
Funnier, I think.
Yeah, yeah, it would be a
it would be a straight up comedy, like,
yeah, I could make this.
Yeah. The heaviness might be gone.
But anyway.
Well, thanks for chatting.
The project Hail Mary, I think.
We talked about longer
than I anticipated. But.
Again, you know, we just.
Go on tangents about other films.
And that's that's kind of the point of,
you know, talking about film
and this podcast, even as, you know, lead
where you're
curious, where the connections happen
and have fun with it.
And thank you for
having me. Yeah, of course.
Hey, guys.
Ashley here.
Thanks for listening to Film Curious!
If you enjoyed this episode,
there's plenty more to come.
I'll be reviewing new theatrical releases
and new streaming as much as possible,
so make sure to subscribe
wherever you get your podcasts.
And after our Project Hail Mary discussion
it made me want to rewatch The Martian.
So stay tuned for that review
in the coming weeks if you want more
Andy Weir space stuff.
Thanks again! See you real soon.