Arrival

               

Nothing prepared me for what a sack of shit Denis Villeneuve's Arrival, a freaking Best Picture nominee, is. Boring, mopey, wan, a Close Encounters for the MDD generation. Amy Adams is a linguist who has lost a daughter to cancer and is, apparently, the only one in the US qualified to communicate with the aliens when their pod lands in Montana. Similar pods land elsewhere on earth and unconvincing chaos results.

Adams does her best to convey credulity and torment, but Villeneuve has left her stranded in a hackneyed scenario that resorts to time travel to save the day. Talents like Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker are similarly adrift in this very sub-Spielberg sci-fi outing. I thought Villeneuve's Sicario was overrated, but it seems like Greed compared to this nothing muffin. (3/29/17)