If You Loved Arrival, Watch These 8 Next

Arrival left you staring at a wall for an hour. Good. These eight hit the same nerve: patient, strange, and smarter than their trailers.

Number one has zero spaceships, zero aliens, and it's still the closest match.

1. 8
   Prisoners (2013)7.6

   Prisoners is Villeneuve at his grimmest, and least Arrival.

   Same director, same overcast dread, same patience. Swap the aliens for a missing-kid mystery. It made $122 million worldwide, but its 7.6 is the lowest Villeneuve score here.
2. 7
   The Prestige (2006)7.4

   The Prestige deserves way better than a 7.4.

   Like Arrival, it cares about how a story is told, not just what happens. 1.6 million IMDb voters rate it 8.5. Critics gave it a 66 Metacritic. Critics blinked.
3. 6
   Donnie Darko (2001)8.5

   Donnie Darko is the weird cousin who still gets invited.

   Time, dread, and a lonely kid nobody believes. It made $8.6 million worldwide on a reported $4.5 million budget and still pulls an 8.5 movie.guru score.
4. 5
   Moon (2009)8.6

   Moon does more with one actor than most do with armies.

   Quiet sci-fi about isolation and identity, which is Arrival's whole mood. Sam Rockwell carries it on a reported $5 million budget. Its audience score beats 94% of movies.
5. 4
   Blade Runner 2049 (2017)8.7

   Blade Runner 2049 is Arrival with longer silences and more rain.

   Same director, same foggy awe, same question of what makes someone human. Reported $150 million budget, $287 million worldwide, and the Guru's Take is a 9.1.
6. 3
   Contact (1997)7.3

   Contact is Arrival's real parent, and its 7.3 is criminal.

   A scientist, a signal from space, and a movie that cares more about belief than lasers. It made $171 million worldwide. Critics gave it a 62 Metacritic. Way too low.
7. 2
   Incendies (2010)9.3

   Incendies is Villeneuve's best movie. Not Arrival. This one.

   Same director, same slow unraveling of family and memory. A 9.3 movie.guru score on a reported $6.5 million budget. Go in knowing nothing. Seriously, nothing.
8. 1
   The Father (2020)9.6

   The Father isn't sci-fi, and it's the closest match here.

   No aliens, no ships. Just Anthony Hopkins in a mind where time stops behaving. Grief, memory, a puzzle you live inside. A 9.6 movie.guru score, highest on this list.

$46.71 says you finish The Father and immediately text your dad.

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