First Take: Arrival- damn near perfection. It’s that good.

SYPNOSIS:

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

Denis Villenueve has been a director who has really hit the big time over the last couple of years- his last two films have been very well recieved by audiences, and now his latest project has definitely lived up to the high expectations that we all had- and I might as well say that it’s already guaranteed a few Oscars.

Villenueve’s direction is near perfect, with a very nicely paced narrative that kept me on the edge of my seat for the near 2 hour film, and that is a thing that the script (adapted excellently by Eric Heisserer) excels at, with some great dialogue and some of the most well developed characters I’ve seen in the 58 releases I’ve reviewed this year. Also, this isn’t the sort of sci-fi that we’ve become used to, it is a more humanised version as the idea of language comes into the plot at many key points, and for that, it makes this film stand out well after leaving the screen. The performances are top class, with Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker putting in some outstanding work, and in the case of Adams, she can easily win her elusive Oscar with this performance alone.

This is a very unique film when it comes to the plot, but it is still shot brilliantly by Bradford Young and scored with ease by Johann Johannson- but at the end of the day, this is a rare example of a film hitting all the right boxes for a major awards sweep when February comes around, and after a few weeks of more minor releases, now is where I can officially begin the countdown to awards season.

THE VERDICT

This film proves that you don’t need action or overly complicated CGI to make an intelligent and unique sci-fi film, and with that, Villenueve has earned my respect (and maybe a second viewing during its cinematic run). This is, by a long margin, one of the best films of 2016.

RATING: 5/5