Haiku Revieu | Arrival

Arrival
★★★★1/2

Amy Adams shines
Aliens are not like us
This film gives me hope

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A linguist is recruited by the military to assist in translating alien communications.

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Before seeing Arrival, I was worried that this was going to be one of the type of alien movies I don't like, movies like District 9 in which humanity is The Absolute Worst and after watching I feel like utter crap about the entire human race. I know humans aren't the best, overall, but I prefer a little bit of "humanity" in my alien movies; i.e., there can be some bad guys, but their actions are balanced by the good ones.

Thankfully, I was wrong. Arrival is a stunning, hopeful movie that shows what we could do, "if only."

I won't go into too much detail, because this is definitely a movie I don't want to spoil for those of you who want to see it. But I might recommend not watching when you're having a particularly emotional day, because this is a heavy film. (We saw it the day after the election, and suffice it to say, I was a mess afterward.)

Amy Adams is glorious in the film, and completely steals the show. Her co-star, Jeremy Renner, is good, too, but Amy absolutely shines. The entire supporting cast, which also includes Forest Whittaker, could have been faceless mannequins and the movie still would have been wonderful. I truly hope she gets some sort of award for the role, because it's utterly deserved.

If you're in any way a fan of thoughtful science fiction, please do yourself a favor and see this film. (Side note: The trailer might make it seem a little scary, what with the alien hitting the glass with its appendage, but it's not like that at all. No jump scares, I promise.)

Check it out:

P.S.—Part of my brain kept confusing this movie with The Arrival, an alien movie from the 90's starring Charlie Sheen. It's terrible, but also worth a watch in that "SyFy movie of the week" kind of way.