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Arrival

2016

Denis Villeneuve

Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg ...

7.4

67,691

Sci-Fi. Drama When alien crafts land around the world, an expert linguist (Amy Adams) is recruited by the military to determine whether they come in peace or are a threat. As she learns to communicate with the aliens, she begins experiencing vivid flashbacks that become the key to unlocking the greater mystery about the true purpose of their visit... The Story of Your Life, an adaptation of a short story by Nebula and Hugo Award-winning author Ted Chiang. [+]

	Author	Review
United Kingdom	Robbie Collin Telegraph	"'Arrival' is science fiction at its most beautiful and provocative (...) This is riveting, dizzying stuff from Villeneuve. (...) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of five)"	POS
United States	Brian Truitt USA Today	"A beautiful and thought-provoking film (...) 'Arrival' may deal with the idea of alien outsiders, but it’s much more an internal — and excellent — exploration of ourselves (...) Rating :★★★★ (out of four)"	POS
United States	David Rooney The Hollywood Reporter	"Anchored by an internalized performance from Amy Adams rich in emotional depth, this is a grownup sci-fi drama that sustains fear and tension while striking affecting chords on love and loss."	POS
United States	Peter Travers Rolling Stone	"Adams (...) is simply stellar (...) Without her, Arrival might be too cerebral to warm up to. With her, the film gets inside your head and emerges as something intimate and epic (...) Rating:	POS
United States	Leah Greenblatt Entertainment Weekly	"An alien-invasion fantasy that operates within the genre at the same time as it subverts it - large-scale movie-star sci-fi filtered through the tricky, esoteric lens of art-house cinema"	POS
United States	Owen Gleiberman Variety	"An alien-visitation drama that has an eerie poetic grandeur, but its net effect is far from out of this world."	NEU
United States	Jessica Kiang The Playlist	"A great deal of the credit must go to the remarkable short story on which (...) is based (...), but it’s Villeneuve’s dedicated intelligence that brings it off the page and onto the screen with an apparent simplicity that connotes a refreshing faith not just in the material, but in the audience."	POS
United Kingdom	Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"'Arrival' is both heartfelt and very entertaining (...) [It] is a big, risky, showy movie (...) And yes, there are moments of silliness when it wobbles a little, but it provides you with spectacle and fervent romance. (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of five)"	POS
United States	Manohla Dargis The New York Times	"By turns inviting and opaque, Ms. Adams turns softness and quiet into heroic qualities, keeping her voice low, modulated, and using stillness to draw you near."	POS
United States	Rex Reed The New York Observer	"'Arrival' is a weird flick, slow and tedious (...) There is no beginning, no middle and no end. This might be O.K. for a language, but a movie has to start and end somewhere (...) Rating: ★ (out of four)"	NEG
United Kingdom	Fionnuala Halligan Screendaily	"In a crowded genre, Villeneuve's picture is distinguished chiefly for being so richly realised and executed, gifted with an almost symbiotic score by his regular collaborator Johann Johannsson."	POS
United States	Alonso Duralde The Wrap	"In films like 'Sicario' and 'Enemy', Villeneuve remained true to his storytelling (...) Still, that slightly abrupt shift isn’t enough to significantly diminish the power (...) of 'Arrival'."	POS

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