It's a sci-fi sub-genre: spaceship(s) park, stand inert, humanity freaks out, a battle, a reconciliation. The Day the Earth Stood Still, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, V, Independence Day, Contact, Signs.
Add to this list 2016's Arrival. Because it seemed squarely within this sub-genre, I blew this movie off as another lazy Hollywood rehash. A mistake, as it is an example of how art, nay, mere genre entertainment, can change a person.
In Arrival, monolithic vehicles--more Euro-rounded, sans serif, and parabolic but not unlike 2001: A Space Odyssey's by way of ominous feel--show up. Check. The movie poster tells us this. But this film from its outset contains the nuance, tone, and atmospherics suggesting something darker, deeper, and awesome (in the non-flippant sense of that word). Awe.
Some elements of what makes a great film are here: exacting story-telling and pacing, pitch perfect score and sound, suspense, thrill, horror, fascination, existentialism (lowercase e), philosophy, deep emotion, sublimity. I wanted to hug my kids afterward, and did, seeing the infinite starshine in their eyes.
See it.
Add to this list 2016's Arrival. Because it seemed squarely within this sub-genre, I blew this movie off as another lazy Hollywood rehash. A mistake, as it is an example of how art, nay, mere genre entertainment, can change a person.
In Arrival, monolithic vehicles--more Euro-rounded, sans serif, and parabolic but not unlike 2001: A Space Odyssey's by way of ominous feel--show up. Check. The movie poster tells us this. But this film from its outset contains the nuance, tone, and atmospherics suggesting something darker, deeper, and awesome (in the non-flippant sense of that word). Awe.
Some elements of what makes a great film are here: exacting story-telling and pacing, pitch perfect score and sound, suspense, thrill, horror, fascination, existentialism (lowercase e), philosophy, deep emotion, sublimity. I wanted to hug my kids afterward, and did, seeing the infinite starshine in their eyes.
See it.
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