My wife and I are home, sick, again, as we’ve been all week. It’s been a shitty week.
We just finished watching Arrival. A few quick thoughts:
1. One of the problems of being parents who are afraid of hiring babysitters is that we don’t get to go to the movies as often as we’d like. Which is why, of the 9 nominees for Best Picture, we’ve only seen Hell or High Water, and now Arrival. I can’t properly assess how it will fare at the Oscars, but I can say this: it’s one of the best science fiction movies I’ve ever seen. Even having read the source material beforehand, I was moved and astonished and amazed. I will watch anything that Denis Villenueve directs from here on out, but I should also mention the cinematography, the sound design, the performances – I have nothing but praise for every aspect of the work that went into making this film.
2. It is impossible to overstate how being a parent can profoundly affect the way one absorbs popular culture. And if you’ve seen Arrival, you can probably guess where I’m coming from; I’ll leave it at that.
3. It is also similarly impossible to see this movie being made in the same way, now that Donald Trump is the President of the United States. Indeed, it is impossible to see a lot of alien encounter movies being made in the same way with Trump running the show. One can only hope that we, as a planet, remain untouched for the duration of his term.
Shouts From The Couch 