Arrival (2016, directed by Denis Villeneuve) By Ben Jardine
Although a fairly recent release, Arrival combines everything I love in a movie: believable science fiction, provocative themes, aliens, an incredible ambient soundtrack, and non-linear timelines. When I first saw Arrival, I was 21 years old and it blew my mind.
The film’s premise is simple. Aliens come to Earth. They use a complex form of circles to communicate, and linguistics professor Dr. Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is recruited by the military to decode the aliens’ message and learn what their purpose is here on Earth. What got me so excited about this movie is the way it pulls off the reveal that Dr. Banks is seeing visions of her future: her life is predetermined, and she handles this with such aplomb that we think we’re seeing flashbacks the whole time. The movie deals with the themes of free will and determinism in such a fascinating way that we don’t see that twist coming. It’s also a brilliant adaptation of Ted Chiang’s novella, Story of Your Life: staying close to the themes and tone of the source material, but building its own aesthetic along the way.
For years after, I would listen to the Jóhann Jóhannsson soundtrack and be immediately transported to the film’s wide, cold shots. When Jóhannsson passed away in 2018, I revisited the soundtrack and the film, moved by the way his death—like the death of Banks’ child in the film—is both a beginning and an end.
