Arrival is one of 2016’s best films and now the eight-time Oscar nominee is out on DVD and Blu-Ray. The mesmerizing, powerful and makes-you-think thriller stars Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker in a film that is a must-have for cinephiles who appreciate storytelling told at the highest level.
Adams is an expert translator, Louise Banks, and when alien spaceships land in what appears to be random locales across the globe, the U.S. government arrives on her doorstep and wants her to lead a team that attempts to start a dialogue with our guests in hopes of determining the answers to several important questions: Why are they here, what do they want and where are they from?
Denis Villeneuve (Sicario) directs in this extraordinary mind-bender of a sci-fi journey that is about the smartest piece of work in this genre we’ve seen all year. With his even hand, Eric Heisserer’s script (nominated for an Academy Award) comes alive in the most vibrant of ways. There are nuances, twists and turns around every corner in this story and one would be hard-pressed to find a better screenwriter-director tandem finding how to hit the right notes than in Arrival. The two of them manage to bring out the best in each other. It is truly impressive.
Arrival is also extremely timely. In this era where our government is going out of its way to purge immigrants (i.e. aliens) from our society, this film turns a mirror on our world and what we see looking back at us is a pitch-perfect take of America in 2017. Arguments are presented brilliantly on both sides as to whether the alien ships come in peace or are a threat. There are various parts of our populous that make compelling arguments to each side. What is so fascinating is that sometimes we get surprised as to who is making which argument. For example, it is Whitaker’s military man who insisted on bringing on Adams and Renner’s linguists in an effort to find a peaceful means of communicating between our two species.
Not since Close Encounters has Hollywood given us an alien invasion movie with such rich mystery and expansive intelligence. Further proof of that smartness is all over the Arrival Blu-Ray bonus features. There is over an hour of truly thought-provoking bonus materials that explore not only the subject matter, but also how the film was made, scored and edited.
Given its importance and key to the entire fabric of the film, we have to salute the linguistic-based title of our first bonus feature, Xenolinguistics: Understanding Arrival. The thirty-minute-plus bonus looks at the source story, the universally resonant themes and the biggest challenges in bringing the story to the big screen. It also includes a terrific look at how the creators crafted the alien language and took it from just an idea to a living, breathing mode of communication. This featurette also explores the casting process (which was handled impeccably) and how filmmakers crafted those alien ships that are truly unlike any we’ve seen before. For a world that has seen everything in the alien invasion landscape, they achieved something truly special with the spacecrafts in Arrival.
The sound of Arrival takes the science of movie acoustics to a whole new level. Acoustic Signatures: The Sound Design is an educational and enlightening look at the sonic succulence of the film and how the team achieved new levels of sound design that takes the film itself to whole new levels.
One of the things that struck us the most upon seeing Arrival in theaters was the score. Eternal Recurrence: The Score is a nice tribute to the music and how it was painstakingly crafted to fit the tone and story of the film. From the scoring room to the editing room takes us to Nonlinear Thinking: The Editing Process, which is a terrific look at the editing of Arrival and how it was as important a part of the creative process as existed on this project.
Film Grade: A+
Bonus Features: A-