ARRIVAL (2016)
Oddly enough there feels like similarities between Contact and Arrival, from rising director Denis Villeneuve, who last year delivered an Oscar-baiting take on making contact with an alien intelligence. It has a strong female in the lead role, this time Amy Adams as an expert linguist drafted in to help the government make contact with an alien ship that has landed, without preamble, in the middle of Montana, as have others around the world. The difference is that we don’t know for some time whether or not an invasion is underway, with the film playing its cards close to its chest, while delivering a rather emotional undercurrent of a backstory for Adams’ character.
To reveal more would do an excellent, intriguing film a disservice and rob a level of payoff, but Arrival ends up subverting the ‘evil aliens’ trope in fascinating, modern ambiguous ways, making it one of the standout films of 2016.
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