Kyle Balda’s The Sheep Detectives delivers on the promise of its title. Based on Leonie Swann's 2005 novel Three Bags Full, the film is a detective story in which a flock of sheep sets out to solve a murder. Craig Mazin’s thoughtful screenplay delivers a steady mix of humor, heart, and surprises. However, the biggest surprise of all is how much emotional depth is hidden beneath all that wool.

Adapting a bestselling, award-winning novel into a film is no simple task, and audiences tend to scrutinize every detail to determine whether the movie does a beloved book justice. Fortunately, the film adaptation of Andy Weir’s novel Project Hail Mary has all the ingredients for success. With Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse filmmakers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller in the directors’ chairs, a screenplay penned by Drew Goddard—who previously wrote the script for another Andy Weir adaptation, Ridley Scott’s The Martian (2015)—and a star like Ryan Gosling at the forefront, the film seems destined to be as crowd-pleasing as its source material. The result is an astounding triumph, bringing Weir’s novel to the big screen with remarkable fidelity and transforming it into what will likely be one of the best films of the year.