Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

This is a rivetting and just in one particular area of the plot a slightly cryptic neo-noir sci-fi mystery about a replicant hunter, full of awesome future fashions, worryingly likely depictions of future city landscapes, glimpses of wondrous tech, and myriad things to think about like, "If replicants could birth children, then what would the ramifications be for humankind?" and, "If this represents a sexist, white boy's fantasy of the future, then what might the opposite look like?" and, "What freedom did director Denis Villeneuve have in creating his vision of the future and how much was dictated by Ridley Scott's classic 1982 original, and in what ways should the two, made 35 years apart, be different?"

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Arrival (2016)

Denis Villeneuve's sci-fi about a linguistics expert enlisted by the US Government to help communicate with snuffleupagus aliens using their wineglass-stain language is for most of its runtime an intriguing mystery but it turns out to be a mystery only on account of its central idea being excessively withheld from viewers and, when the big reveal finally comes, the movie's hypnotic pace underwhelms the moment.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Sicario (2015)

The covert black ops mission that sweeps up Emily Blunt's FBI agent is a shadowy, violent, and lawless battle against a powerful drug cartel, and the more she sees the more conflicted she becomes about the ethics of the mission, in Denis Villeneuve's brutal thriller and must-see travel guide for anyone contemplating a holiday to Juarez, Mexico.

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEW

Prisoners (2013)

Elaborately detailed, harrowing child abduction thriller with points of difference that rise it above other thrillers of its kind, but like another of Denis Villeneuve's movies, Incendies, this one, once it is over, leaves you wondering about the purpose of such a grandly staged but grim little world.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Incendies (2010)

The story is the stuff of Greek tragedy played out in a modern war-torn country, about twins following posthumous orders from their mother, and the viewer will wonder what on earth possessed director Denis Villeneuve to tell such a gruelling, exhausting but undeniably rivetting saga.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS