10 Movies Nobody Could Stop Thinking About

Denis Villeneuve's Arrival was marketed as a seemingly typical alien invasion movie, and even with an expert filmmaker overseeing a killer cast, few could've anticipated what was lying in wait.

Arrival is a film about humanity making first contact with extraterrestrials like no other, because rather than focus explicitly on digital creatures or an apocalyptic threat to Earth, it's really a movie about time.

We think Arrival and its protagonist, Louise Banks (Amy Adams), are dealing with one thing, when by film's end we realise it's something else entirely.

The concept of time as non-linear and how we as people perceive it is central to Arrival's climactic emotional payoff, and comes as such a jaw-dropping surprise that it's sure to dominate the thoughts of anyone who watches it for a long, long time afterwards.

Beyond that, there's something deeply life-affirming about its message and its protagonist's journey, to embrace pain and appreciate the joy that can also come along with it. Away from the aliens and everything else, it's an resoundingly grounded piece of humanist existential fiction.