Ryan Gosling anchors Project Hail Mary, a visually striking, character-focused sci-fi about an unlikely alien friendship that shines despite some rushed late-film science.

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s treacly alien buddy comedy about an astronaut stranded in outer space gives even the most curmudgeonly among us things to laugh at.

He wakes up alone on a spaceship, barely able to speak, and somehow ends up Earth’s last, nerdy hope — armed with a dry-erase marker, a useless AI, and the kind of scrappy optimism that makes the end ...