Pop Culture Diary: This Week's Reviews, Reads and Roundups: 'Project Hail Mary,' 'Kneecap' and More

What I've Been Into...

"Project Hail Mary" (2026). I appreciated the well-intentioned, 1980s-throwbacky vibe of this, but sadly found it a bore.

So far as I could follow it, the plot involved some Kirby Krackle-ish organisms are set to eat the sun and only high school science teacher Ryan Gosling understands how to stop it. He's abducted by some folks who act like bad guys but who are really good guys and, against his will, is drugged and rocketed into outer space to do his thing and maybe save the planet.

Reaching his destination, Gosling's scientist meets up with a vaguely Thing-ish alien who also is trying to stop the Kirby Krackle. The two reluctant astronauts somehow learn how to communicate (in English, conveniently) and"science" ensues as they team up to save their respective homeworlds.

Not a bit of it makes much sense. At least it didn't too me. And there's far more talk than action.

I did appreciate the spirit of friendship and collaboration and the fact that the story centered on a natural threat, rather than evildoers. Gosling fared amazingly well acting, for the most part, in CGI environments and with a CGI co-star and is as charming as ever. But the movie is long, predictable and short on any suspense or action.

"Kneecap" (2024). All I knew going in was that Kneecap is a controversial Irish rap act. Now I know that they also are hilarious and brilliant.

This is one of most out-and-out fun movies I've seen in a long time. It's funny, edgy and unflinchingly rebellious. It's also probably not super-accurate, yet I didn't care as the film rolled out what is supposed to be the origins of the group.

Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh and Naoise Ó Cairealláin (yes, I've copy/pasted these names) are a pair of drug-dealing never-do-wells attending a rave outside Belfast when the cops show up.

The Garda nabs Liam, who insists on speaking only Gaelic to the English-only authorities, which leads them to call in JJ Ó Dochartaigh, a music teacher at an Irish immersion school, to act as a translator.

Long story short, JJ, a frustrated d.j., spots some Gaelic raps in Liam's notebook and invites Liam and Naoise to work on some tracks together. Many beats and drugs ensue, along with some iffy gigs in a local pub. This stirs the interest of a supposedly anti-drug branch of the I.R.A., which gets on the trio's case.

The result is a no-hold-barred, no-safe-targets farce that pokes fun at rap, nationalism, the British, the Irish, the authorities, the music industry and Kneecap themselves. All three members of the group, particularly Liam, are fabulous, natural actors and comedians.

As my wife put it, it's like "Derry Girls" on ketamine. And it's wonderful. Check it out.

Sunday Reads

An appreciation of Alfred Hitchcock's Three Investigators via World of Monsters:

Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw, and Bob Andrews are the titular characters who form the Three Investigators Agency and run their enterprise out of a trailer secreted away on the property of a salvage yard run by Jupiter's aunt and uncle. The three live in Rocky Beach, California, located in Los Angeles area near Hollywood (probably based on Malibu). Each of them are about 15 years-old, so none of them are legally allowed to drive. To get around that, Jones wins a contest that gives them the use of a Rolls Royce (!) for a month, but one of their wealthy "clients" opens up his wallet in gratitude and pays for its continued use.

What set this series apart from all the others was the quality of the writing and many agree that it is the best written of any of the young adult book series of that time period. Personally, I agree.

An accomplished TV and radio scriptwriter Robert Arthur, Jr. was also a prolific fiction writer who specialized in mysteries and science fiction with stories published in AMAZING STORIES, ARGOSY, COLLIER'S, BLACK MASK, THE PHANTOM DETECTIVE, THE SHADOW and many others. In addition he edited numerous Alfred Hitchcock short story anthologies (and wrote the introductions attributed to Hitchcock) including STORIES THAT MY MOTHER NEVER TOLD ME, STORIES NOT FOR THE NERVOUS, STORIES FOR LATE AT NIGHT, STORIES THAT SCARED EVEN ME and STORIES THEY WOULDN'T LET ME DO ON TV.