Twenty-four years after Tom Hanks gave an Oscar-nominated performance opposite a volleyball named Wilson, Ryan Gosling is generating awards buzz for befriending a rock.
Welcome to cinema in 2026, where Project Hail Mary has critics genuinely debating whether Gosling's performance as an astronaut whose only companion is an alien life form – represented on screen by, well, a rock – deserves Academy consideration. Variety is calling it "the first Oscar-worthy performance of the year," which is either a testament to Gosling's talent or a sign that we've run out of ideas.
Probably both.
The film, directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and adapted from Andy Weir's novel, features Gosling as Ryland Grace, a scientist on a solo mission to save humanity. For large stretches of the film, his only interaction is with an alien entity that communicates through vibrations in a mineral form. It's Cast Away in space, if Wilson could occasionally solve physics equations.
What makes this genuinely interesting – beyond the absurdity of Oscar campaigning for rock-based chemistry – is that solo performances represent acting at its purest. Remove the scene partners, the reaction shots, the tennis-match dialogue, and what's left is whether an actor can hold the screen alone. Hanks proved it was possible. So did Sandra Bullock in Gravity, Robert Redford in All Is Lost, and James Franco in 127 Hours.
has become an increasingly adventurous actor in recent years, moving easily between prestige drama (), crowd-pleasing action (), and pure camp (). asks him to do something different: carry a $100 million sci-fi spectacle with minimal human interaction. Early reactions suggest he pulls it off, finding emotional depth in conversations with minerals.
