Rewatching "Project Hail Mary" with kiddo and realizing that the accusation of it being naive and old-fashioned is moot. Sure, it seems like a movie from the olden days, around 2000, where terrestrial states collaborate in a joint effort to send their best US-American heroes and one crazy Russian to space to save the day.
But I've been demanding utopian stories! This is one! It's not the kind of Solarpunk story showing a new kind of society that's overcome climate change and social disparity. But it's about all countries of Earth joining forces to find a scientific solution to an environmental threat. And there's interspecies friendship.
I used to love dystopian science fiction - it doesn't work anymore for reality is ever more infernal. "Project Hail Mary" is a well made, entertaining, visually stunning movie. It's a nice thing to watch with a science interested eleven year old. It's hopeful as long as I find it in me to have hope. I'll practice that. Hope. Utopy.
