In an Unexpected Twist, Arrival Is One of This Year's Best Hollywood Movies

Arrival is one of the very best Hollywood movies this year, but it's not remotely what you expect it to be. When you think of films about visitors from outer space, you probably conjure up images of the White House blowing up or goopy, big-teeth aliens jumping out of people's bellies. Things are far different in Denis Villeneuve's quietly tense new film, although for its opening hour--which boasts 12 huge alien spaceships hovering over different parts of the earth--it looks like a normal science...