The folks who run the Belcourt’s Science on Screen series must’ve known that the Ryan Gosling space odyssey Project Hail Mary would be a monster hit. As the film continues to kill at the multiplexes, the local arthouse will close out this year’s series with the 2015 sci-fi dramedy The Martian, adapted from Project Hail Mary author Andy Weir’s 2011 novel. (Both films were also adapted by Cloverfield/World War Z screenwriter Drew Goddard.) After confusing the fuck outta everyone with his Alien prequel Prometheus, Ridley Scott went the kinder, gentler route with his next space opera. In this one, Matt Damon is the charming-ass white dude far away from home, and an all-star cast (Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels, Donald Glover, Kristen Wiig) works together to get him back to Earth. As Scott Wilson wrote in these pages, this “conspicuously expert display of high Hollywood tech … finds ample dramatic heft in leveraging will, teamwork and ingenuity against fear and unforgiving science.” Calhoun Community College technology instructor Chris Crumbly and aerospace engineer Tracie Prater will be around for a post-screening discussion.
2:30 p.m. at the Belcourt
2102 Belcourt Ave.
