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REVIEW: ARRIVAL

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Is there other intelligent life in the universe? And if so, how will we communicate with them? This is the basis of the new Sci-Fi film ARRIVAL. Not just how first contact will happen, but how we can actually make contact with potential visitors.

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The plot revolves around several hyper-advanced extraterrestrial ships landing at major points all around the world causing an international panic. Linguist specialist Louise Banks (Played by Amy Adams) is recruited by Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker) align with other specialists such as mathematician Ian Donelly (Jeremy Renner) to try and reach out to the alien visitors. Louise trying to figure out if the visitors’ intentions are benevolent or if they have sinister intentions for our planet…

A truly modern day science fiction film from Prisoners and Sicario director Denis Villeneuve that brings a truly optimistic edge to the genre that has been weighted in cynicism. It definitely helps that at the time of seeing this particular movie, I had just also rewatched 2001: A Space Odyssey at an earlier screening at BeyondFest. It invoked a sense of wonder. That science, logic, and our humanity can be our greatest assets. That’s the kind of feeling I got while watching Arrival

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This is no over the top sci-fi thriller. With the timeline of events starting with the landing of the alien’s ships and humanity’s reactions feeling rather grounded and plausible. An almost optimistic caution and fear washes over our characters and humanity as a whole. Hope that the extraterrestrials will prove friendly. Can offer us something. While others fear The Other. The strange. That they are a threat.  And on the aliens themselves, much compliments to the design and FX teams behind them. I don’t want to spoil, but they are some of the most unique I’ve seen some time. With some clear Lovecraft style squid-like inspiration. As well as just how these visitors are capable of communication.

As can be imagined, the cast is spot on. The main focus being Amy Adam’s character and her struggle to make a clear line of communication with the aliens before humanity’s own paranoia and fear overwhelms us and causes disaster. This is a slow burn but optimistic science fiction movie, evoking older inspirations such as 2001 and the ilk from the 60′ and 70’s. One with a deeper focus that reflects off our own fractured world: that communication can be the most powerful tool of all.

Arrival arrives in theaters 11/11/2016 with preview screenings tonight.

Here’s the trailer below. And for more BeyondFest goodness, here are some previous articles!

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‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

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It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

Evil Dead Rise

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

High Desert Hell
The Gemini Project

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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

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Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

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Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

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Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

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