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)

at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)
  • State Funeral
    Red Square, March 9th, 1953 Sergei Loznitsa's State Funeral  is an assemblage of footage documenting the prolonged funeral ceremonies he...
  • La Collectionneuse
    Haydée Politoff and Patrick Bauchau Éric Rohmer's La Collectionneuse , his first color film, is his first feature to truly bear his stam...
  • American Mary
    Katharine Isabelle Jen and Sylvia Soska's American Mary  is a superior exploitation film from the Canadian duo that was released in  201...
  • Blast of Silence
    Allen Baron Allen Baron's Blast of Silence , released in  1961,  is an existential crime thriller made on a shoestring budget. Baron him...
  • Bring Her Back
    Sally Hawkins Danny and Michael Philippou's Bring Her Back  is the creepiest horror film I've seen in some time, a worthy successor ...