April 2026 [6-12]
Project Hail Mary, Atonement, Exposure 36, True Detective: S2, Preparation for the Next Life
- Project Hail Mary [2026]- 63
I understand that I’m the odd-man out on this one, but God did I find Project Hail Mary frustrating. There’s a lot about it that’s very impressive from a technical perspective, but the story itself is so toothless that I’m pretty sure its bones were stolen from a retirement home. Hopefully I get around to writing about this as it relates to something I dislike in media more generally, but Project Hail Mary suffers so badly from its totally neutered approach to conflict that there just isn’t anything to latch onto come the credits; Nothing matters, nobody is worse for wear, everyone wins. At no point does anyone we actually know come up against something they either can’t or have to sacrifice to solve, our two leads never diverge in goal or perspective for any reason, and [no matter how many times the story insists that the stakes are real and my first point in this sentence isn’t true] each solution is handed to us in such easy ways that the entire thing just feels trivial. One could sum the entirely of Project Hail Mary’s too-long runtime by simply appending “and then everything worked out for everyone” onto the end of whatever conflict the plot tries to cook up, and uh… If I wanted that I’d go read a children’s fairy tale. Yawn.
- Atonement [2007] - 84
Similar to Project Hail Mary only in the sense that it’s an adaptation, 2007’s Oscar winner for Original Score, Atonement, is a phenomenal story that only suffers by being a touch long and a touch dry, though the payoff for pushing through is both worth it and clever. I look forward to reading the book on this one because I can see elements of the film that are likely glossed over or just omitted that a novel can be more patient with. That said, the artistry at work here is top notch and deserving of recognition entirely without being compared to its source material as well. Wonderful cinematography, great performances, and a score that’s both inventive, powerful, and moving, Atonement is a characteristically staunch British romance/ drama that non-fans of the genre might find a little challenging, despite its ultimately moving conclusions.
- Exposure 36 [2021] - 53
Exposure 36 is a small indie film by first-time writer/director Mackenzie G. Mauro chronicling the end of the world through the lens of one man’s camera. Coming with the usual trappings of first-time indie films, Exposure 36 also has many strengths to offset them, only really getting dragged down by having a couple too many ideas that are translated in a couple too many awkward ways. The basic concept for the film is great — the world is ending and we follow a character who wants to record ambient life through his camera to leave behind negatives in a safe, should anyone come after — but it tries to inject a lot of personal character drama into the narrative that ultimately ends up taking away from this otherwise interesting idea. Had the story stuck to its larger philosophical trappings, I think this could have been one of those “must see” indies like They Look Like People or Coherence, but ends up stumbling over its own feet just as often as tapping to its own unique rhythm. I’d watch something else Mauro does in the future as this is a strong start, but a little editing definitely goes a long way.
- True Detective: S2 [2015] - 34
Speaking of things that needed a little editing, True Detective: S2 should have been edited entirely out of existence. While I was at least primed by the vestigial drivel that was Night Country, there’s a special kind of brain injury required to create something so meaninglessly droll as S2. Forty-thousand characters [none of whom matter] find themselves involved in an ever-deepening web of collusion, greed, and debauchery over the course of this 8-hour atrophy-inducing slog, and the deeper the conspiracy gets… The less it matters somehow. The show is so bad at giving the audience any reason to care about anyone involved that each time it adds a layer, all you can do is roll your eyes and say “well, I guess someone else is in on it too” because there’s just nothing to hold onto besides a vague hope that next episode will be better. All the villains are effectively nameless catalysts for naughtiness, all the main characters are unlikeable simply by virtue of literary catatonia, and the entire plot wraps up into such a pointlessly convoluted and emotionally bereft package that it would be hard to convince me the show wasn’t written as it aired, rather than from any sort of outline or fleshed out screenplay. At least next year’s season is written by… Oh no.
- Preparation for the Next Life [2025] - 86
Finishing the week strong with a movie I’d never fault someone for not liking, Preparation for the Next Life is an excellently aromantic romance that uses a seemingly easy anti-America premise to tell a complex and moving story of struggle, perseverance, and personal worth. In her feature debut, Sebiye Behtiyar plays an impressively stoic and headstrong [but kind and compassionate] woman simply trying to make ends meet while finding some sort of path forwards, when she bumps into Skinner, an Army vet played by Fred Hechinger, who’s simply trying to make it through another day. Both people just want to live — just want the world to either care about and support them, or to leave them alone and allow them to thrive in their own ways — and both know this is an impossibility because of their various personal situations, conditions, and pasts. Preparation for the Next Life is a very dry, very quiet, and very boring movie in entirely intentional and meaningful ways. It allows all of its pieces to softly simmer away to form a perfect stew, rather than relying on explosive moments of drama or emotion to drive its heavy story home. Not for everyone, Preparation for the Next Life is likely to end up in my top 50 for the year.
