Arrival
The first time experience of watching this needs to “come back to me” because wowza. Went into this with not much expectations, this wasn't on my watchlist but I had gotten a free trial of a subscription and this was on it so just decided to check it out and damn was it worth it.
Amy Adams gives an amazing performance as Louise, her confusion, her putting it together, the realisation, the desperation, the heartbreak everything is done so well.
Jeremy Renner gives a good performance aswell, though one of my few complaints with the film is Ian not having enough of a role, in the starting helicopter scene when Louise and Ian had that debate about Science vs Language i thought we'd see both getting used a lot and their different approaches, but it was mostly just Louise solving the case and Ian kinda just.. standing there. So in terms of contribution to the alien plot I don't think Ian had a big enough role, but as an emotional support to Louise he was definitely perfect.
One of the best thing in the movies is the score, both of the main ones, the terrifying, stop your breath kinda theme during the alien scenes. And the literally majestic, one of the best scores I've ever heard during the family scenes, playing right at the start of the movie, and then at the end of the movie. When it first played during the start, I knew it was good, and it was a realisation that music is from this movie because I've heard it a lot of times before. But when it played in the end, I wasn't even thinking about any of that, about how I've heard it before or whatever, i literally ascended into heaven and got goosebumps when it played in those final 5 minutes.
The movie does such an amazing job of balancing between the world ending, gigantic storyline of the Arrival of the aliens vs the grounded, emotional, storyline of Louise's family and her future.
I was very confused a lot of the times in the movie but damn does it pay off in the end. When everything clicked in, the score hit, the acting from Amy Adams, literally one of the best cinematic experiences I've had.
The movie leaves you with such a bittersweet feeling. With literal beautiful dialogue just in the last 20 minutes of the movie like: “I forgot how good it felt to be held by you” which was such a complex like for the situation they were in, and the best line of the movie: “Despite knowing the journey, and where it leads, I embrace it, and welcome every moment of it.” Wow. Literally wow, almost cried at that line, it's so beautiful and so sad at the same time because the beginning, the start of this journey is so heartwarming but you also know the heartbreaking way it's gonna end.
Overall, masterpiece of a movie, id like to rewatch soon just to watch it with the context of knowing what's going on with Louise and see how i feel about it then but yea. Dennis Villeneuve is a literal god apparently, I've watched the 2 Dune movies which I loved, now this holy experience, and I'm excited to watch others which I've heard are very good from his insane catalogue(Incendies, Sicario, Prisoners, Blade Runner 2049). Definitely starting a list for him too.
4.75