Christopher Miller and Phil Lord turn unlikely material into quick, self-aware comedy. We like the wit and the willingness to try different animation styles, though their films can spend too long explaining how everything works.
Fi1m perspective
Ryan Gosling wakes aboard a spaceship in Project Hail Mary (2026), with a computer asking him what two plus two is. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller let him discover his predicament at the same pace we do, working from Drew Goddard’s adaptation of Andy Weir’s novel. We were delighted by this opening because Gosling’s puzzlement makes the necessary explanations funny. That mixture of brisk comedy and care for the person caught up in it is why we like Miller, even when the films run on.
Miller and Lord co-directed Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009), Miller’s first feature, before moving into live action with 21 Jump Street (2012). With their 2014 Lego film, they again found comedy in source material that hardly promised it. Their characters recognise familiar storytelling conventions, and the physical comedy comes as quickly as the verbal comedy. Lord is the essential collaborator here; we would be wary of assigning one half of a shared comic style to either name.
Miller’s work as a producer on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) continued into Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023), which he also co-wrote with Lord and David Callaham. That film was directed by Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson and Joaquim Dos Santos, a distinction worth keeping when discussing the animation. Its different painting styles give each world a character of its own, and we recommend it despite the amount of time spent explaining rules. The film is 140 minutes long and tells only half a story; its writers sometimes seem more interested in the rules than in getting on with it.
The return to directing with Project Hail Mary finds Lord and Miller more willing to slow down and leave space between the gags. That patience suits Gosling, but it does not excuse the flashbacks, which keep a warm, clever film running longer than it needs to. We would happily lose half an hour of its 157 minutes. We recommend it to anyone who likes watching people work things out.
Biography
Christopher Miller is an American filmmaker, writer and producer. He frequently collaborates with Phil Lord, whom he met while studying at Dartmouth College. Their joint credits include directing and writing the animated features Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and The Lego Movie (2014), as well as the live-action comedies 21 Jump Street (2012) and 22 Jump Street (2014).
Miller and Lord created the animated series Clone High (2002–2003, 2023–2024). They produced Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and wrote and produced its sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023). Miller directed Project Hail Mary (2026) with Lord.
