Arrival - Review Thread

I was lucky to attend a private screening in Los Angeles on Saturday that was followed by a Q&A with the cinematographer of the film, Bradford Young, so I'll post my thoughts on that first.  Young is, well, awesome.  He's young (no pun intended), humble, immensely talented, and was a thrill to speak with.  His credits include lensing A Most Violent Year, Selma, and he's also shooting the upcoming Han Solo film.  Needless to say, his career is incredibly impressive given his age and his work in Arrival was outstanding.  I was thrilled to be invited to this event and even more excited and inspired by being able to speak to Young about his process and how he approaches his work.  Definitely going to be following this guy from here on out.

It's no secret that I'm a fan of director Denis Villeneuve.  Sicario was bested only by Mad Max: Fury Road last year in terms of sheer thrill and intensity, and as a major Blade Runner fanboy I can't even put into words how confident I am that he's the right man to make Blade Runner 2049 as good as the original.  Yes, I just went there.  And yet it's still an interesting fit to see him doing this film since it doesn't exactly blend with his resume.  Generally his films are melancholy, R-rated flicks delving into the nastiness of human nature that feature moody scores and imagery and no shortage of intense suspense and violence.  Arrival is far and away his most gentle film in regards to tone, pacing, and characters.  It might also be his best film yet, a sure sign that he continues to grow as a filmmaker and that his voice can extend beyond just grim fare.  

The film centers on a familiar plot line: an alien ship (12 to be exact) lands on Earth, and we try to either blow them up before they do it to us or attempt to communicate with them to understand why they've come here.  I'm entirely sick of the former as it 95% of the time leads to mindless action and CGI sequences of world landmarks being destroyed all resulting in a tedium I can't tolerate.  The latter isn't anything new, it's been done since 1951's The Day the Earth Stood Still (maybe even earlier) and while I certainly prefer this plot arc it too can fall to cliche and repetition.  Arrival centers on Amy Adams' character Louise, a professor of linguistics who is recruited by the military to open a channel of communication with the aliens.  As she goes through various tests and word association scenarios with the aliens to attempt to form commonalities, she is plagued by flashes of her failed marriage and loss of her only child.  While she attempts to maintain her own mental state and figure out why the aliens (Heptopods as they are later named) are here, the other nations aren't exhibiting the same patience, and the film becomes as much an examination of the importance of understanding those different from us as it also is our own inability to communicate as humans and differing cultures.

This is a film that obviously has a lot to spoil, and I'm going to keep this spoiler free so I'm going to stray from plot discussions and focus on the aesthetics of the film instead.  Villeneuve is certainly never alone is evoking the emotional power that his films bear, and as it was in Prisoners and Sicario, the score here consisting of heavy strings is mesmerizing.  The film maintains a comfortable pace throughout and is certainly very grounded for a film about aliens, but the score is so, so good and embodies a naturalistic sense of how people would emotionally react to an event of this magnitude occurring.  Coupled with the score is some of the best editing I've seen ever.  The images are never jarring, never sensational or cheap but rather sift through the viewer with a heightened sense of intrigue and wonder.  We cut back-and-forth from flashbacks for Louise to her encounters with the Heptopods with such grace that it almost seems effortless and yet you know that this has been edited by a true master of their craft.  Villeneuve's directing is very good here, but I argue that the score and editing are what really pull the viewer into Arrival.  Not to go unmentioned either is the aforementioned Bradford Young's cinematography.  Shot mostly with soft and natural light in traditional high-key style but against sweeping Montana landscapes, the look of the film meshes so well with the editing and score.  There are beautiful floating tracking shots sweeping around the alien ship, there are outstanding images of characters silhouetted in interiors watching the ship trying to figure out what to do next, there are hard contrast looks inside military briefing rooms and labs that have beautiful splashes of color over the actors' faces.  It's all so in tune with the rest of the film's approach of gentle power that it's hard to not be emotionally swept up in it all.  And again, the most constant criticism thrown towards Villeneuve films are that their emotional intensity is anything but subtle, but Arrival can garner no such slights.  There's a true grace and beauty about this film that's hard to sum up in words, and without being overly CGI heavy or galaxy-spanning the film manages to be one of the most stunning works of science fiction put to screen.

The ending is sure to stir conversations for years to come.  This is not your typical aliens from another world film.  This is a film that rewards the mature viewer and explores its themes without throwing them in your face or telling you that the world needs to do such and such in order to survive.  I don't think I can say that this is a great film despite it having all of the ingredients to be so, but it's certainly a very strong film that transcends any conventions of its genre.  Sometimes you get so tired of seeing the same old, same old that when a movie comes along and tries something different, even if the end result isn't entirely a winner, you acknowledge that the film attempted to buck the cliched trend.  Arrival is a quietly powerful film about communication on several levels and how that communication is the true key to advancement as well as survival.  Though its themes aren't exactly revolutionary, Arrival is an excellent example of a film that has each of its departments working on superb levels and the end result is one that meshes these aesthetics into something that feeds off its strengths instead of clumsily attempting to balance them all.  This is another step forward in growth and range by Villeneuve, and even if you haven't been impressed by his previous works you should give Arrival a look.

8/10