I will champion science fiction until the day I die. It is absurd to me that many still write-off an entire genre when we all carry it around in our pockets. Everything we use in our daily lives started out in someone's imagination, and much of it was being written about in science fiction long before it was made reality.
Arrival is the best kind of science fiction, a kind that only comes around once in a very great while. It deals with huge, universe-spanning ideas on an intimate emotional level that speaks to the very heart of what it means to be human. It is the kind of science fiction that can change you.
I cannot heap enough praise on this film. The script is nigh-perfect. Director Denis Villeneuve (Incendies, Prisoners, Sicario) has recently skyrocketed to the upper-echelon of my favorite directors, and this is by far his best and most accomplished work. Amy Adams gives a powerfully nuanced and understated performance, cementing her place as one of the best actresses working today.
But Arrival is greater than just the sum of its parts. If any science fiction film in the last ten years deserves to be considered by the Academy, it is this one. It is by far the best movie I've seen this year, and one of the best in recent memory. It is the kind of experience that will leave you a different person than when you walked in. It is a poignant, astounding, gorgeous film.
Please go see it.
10/10.