The Anti-Hollywood Crowd Is Loving Project Hail Mary. But the Daily Wire Lot Is Missing the Point
People who have largely dismissed Hollywood lately are loving Project Hail Mary. And a take from the Daily Wire crew completely misses the point of this film.
With Ryan Gosling’s project soaring at the box office, Matt Walsh gave his read of the movie over the weekend. In a development that might shock you, the critic praised the film as “a true family film.” However, that praise is a sub-style dig at all these other movies for families that come out every week to mostly jeers from the Daily Wire contingent. Project Hail Mary is truly a great movie. One look at the Rotten Tomatoes scores from both critics and audiences could tell you that.
(All of this analysis hinges on the fact that you know how the conservative media apparatus operates. A lot of these commentators make their mint off of tearing down whatever Hollywood’s doing at this current moment. Taking aim at things that other people enjoy in pop culture and telling their enthralled listeners why it’s actually terrible. But, when confronted with true cultural juggernauts they usually pivot. Because, everybody actually likes a thing and there is no other side to a ‘debate.’ It would be nice if more people could opt out of these kinds of culture arguments more often.)
Still, Walsh compared Project Hail Mary to other science-fiction heavy-hitters. Movies like Ad Astra and Interstellar get name-dropped in there. And, to be fair, the new movie from Phil Lord and Chris Miller carries a ton of genre DNA from beloved space films. Andy Weir’s 2021 novel is a great place to start with. But, there have been tons of good movies released every year for time immemorial. It’s almost like these compliments are in bad faith…
Matt Walsh’s take on Project Hail Mary
Walsh began, “Took the wife and kids to see Project Hail Mary. We all really enjoyed it. Its greatest achievement is that it’s an actual family movie. Not too babyish for adults and not too grown up for the kids. Reminds me of the PG movies they used to make all the time in the 80s and the 90s. Very much a spiritual descendant of ET. Maybe Hollywood will take the hint and start making real family films again.”
“It also kind of reminded me of Ad Astra, which is a massively underrated masterpiece. A slower film, more adult oriented and contemplative. That and Arrival are probably the best space/alien movies of the past 15 years. Project Hail Mary is probably in the top five. I’d rank it higher than Interstellar.”
The movie is good, but that’s not why conservative voices were praising it
One of the easiest ways to filter this kind of praise through a translation machine is to think about the text of the work. Yes minorities and women appear in Project Hail Mary. But, for long stretches this is the Ryan Gosling and Rocky Show. Yes, the little Rock alien and his human buddy have to figure out how to restart the sun so that life can continue on for both of their people. It’s very humanistic, and probably allows a lot of these people to ease into the viewpoints of the protagonist easier. (Obviously not great that a large segment of the audience can identify with a rock more than people of color or half the population. But, we move forward!)
Still, even with half-handed praise, Project Hail Mary remains a triumph. Multiple different sources around the Internet are pointing to its success at the box office this weekend. There looks to be hope for original projects. Well, as long as they’re in space. If even Matt Walsh can admit a movie is good, maybe things might all work out anyway? Maybe the Daily Wire crew can learn something from Project Hail Mary and Ryland Grace?
(featured image: MGM/Gage Skidmore)
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