Arrival

I went and saw Blade Runner: 2049 in theaters a couple weeks back, and I’ve seen director Denis Villeneuve’s intense Sicario, strange metaphorical Enemy, and one of my personal favorites in Prisoners; however, none of these are what I decided to focus on. Although it would have easily been better to see in theaters, I just now watched last year’s alien invasion thinker Arrival.

I mention Villeneuve’s previous (and what he did right after Arrival which was Blade Runner) works because there’s something about these foreign directors and their almost technically perfect filmmaking style. I would honestly compare Villeneuve’s visceral punching, yet subtle vision-driven storytelling to that of Alejandro Inarritu (The Revenant, Babel, Birdman). If you want simply solid films built with tension and sometimes delivering thought-provoking plots, Villeneuve is a good choice.

So what is Arrival? 12 alien spacecraft vessels with strange, black, oval-like shapes touch down (well, they hover above the ground) around the globe. And one of my favorite things about the film is that it knows people don’t want 30 minutes of exposition explaining the backgrounds of the charcaters and why they’ve been chosen; Amy Adams is a skilled linguist professor, and she’s headed toward the spacecraft in under 20 minutes with an established background already setup. She is taken there by Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker) and accompanied by theoretical something physicist with toned muscles Jeremy Renner.

One of the strongest aspects of this film—just like the visually stunning 2049—is the logical flow of events in the film. It makes sense why Adams and Renner are needed for communication, and the way they go about everything is just smart and practical. I’d prefer not describing how they interact with the aliens—even if that comprises a large bulk of the movie—but just know that the plot structure is much more sophisticated than a typical Hollywood summer flick.

For a film centering around alien contact, it is incredible to see how rooted in humanity the story is. Much of the conflict arises from trust issues from around the globe and especially China’s thinning belief that the aliens are here for peaceful reasons. Their turn towards more aggressive tactics and other countries following suit is where the pickup in pacing comes from. And it’s also where the film deviates even more from the norm. If you’re watching this film in a personalized setting like on your laptop, put some headphones in and crank that volume up. There’s a big reason why this film won an Oscar in sound editing; the effects have to be so precise when so much of the plot relies on a linguist trying to figure out how to properly communicate with mysterious aliens that are humorously named Abbott and Costello (Who’s on First reference) by Renner. And instead of having a huge, Hans Zimmer score punctuating the action, there’s a much more surreal feel from the lack of Johann Johannsson’s score (who works with Villeneuve on practically everything). For example, Adams needs to take a breath of fresh air from the stressful work environment, and as she is outside in the beautiful Montana landscape and she reflects on past exposition regarding her family, the touching flashback only has the sound of wind blowing on the tall grass that Adams is sitting in. The minimalist approach brings the audience in closer to this intimate scene, and we hang on every frame.

So this is like a masterpiece? Well, not exactly. Again, technically speaking, it’s near perfect like how Inarritu is. But that doesn’t necessarily translate to simple entertainment value on screen. These are wonderful kinds of films that can be discussed for hours, but that’s not the point of this review. To keep it relatively simple, Arrival is a good film that will keep you intrigued for its duration. But you won’t really walk out after the credits and be like, “Wow, that was great!” Actually, the effect it will have is probably closer to a desire to go get a mocha, sit by a rainy window of a wooden table with comfy, contemporary furniture at that hip coffeeshop that will have a name like The West Side Coffeeshop or Hot Coffee with Cool Friends, and you’ll just want to think about life. I will say with about 20 minutes left, the movie had me worried about what strange, complicated direction it was going to take, but then it fooled me and went somewhere else. It’s a clever, cool looking film that is logical at every turn (unlike all teenagers in horror movies)—but I’m not sure it’s enough to be classified as “one of the greats.”

And if you’d like a review on any of his other films like Blade Runner: 2049 which I think is still in theaters, I’m always open for suggestions. Just don’t tell me to watch The Human Centipede because, even if I hit rock bottom in life, I don’t think I’ll ever have an urge to watch that film. Stay thirsty, my friends, and keep on keeping on.