I'll talk about the brilliant movie landing on Netflix on September 1st (in the US, it's already on Netflix in the UK) in a second but let's first ask, why has Amy Adams never won an Oscar? With no less than six nominations, she is still yet to be a winner. An injustice. It should in fact be seven nominations after her performance in 2016's Arrival which is... arriving on one of the best streaming services next month.
If you like your sci-fi movies like Independence Day or Armageddon then Arrival is probably not going to be what you're hoping for. There is some action, but this is more of a thinker than a "pew-pew aliens bad" narrative, and all the better for it. We're not focused on marines or space pilots. Instead, our heroes are a linguistics expert and a physicist (Jeremy Renner, reunited with Adams from the brilliant American Hustle) armed not with rifles but whiteboards. Stick with me.
