Okay. If you are still mourning/angry/frightened/upset at the events of last week, and you enjoy smart science fiction, language, and philosophy, drop what you’re doing and go see Arrival. It is thought-provoking, insanely intelligent, entertaining as hell, and should be considered up there with 2001 and Contact in smart SF cinema.I’d read the short story by Ted Chiang so there weren’t any real surprises for me, but as my friend Bill observed they added some very well-judged scenes to clarify certain things, as well as a realistic subplot to increase the tension.

Moreover, it is better than Valium in calming your nerves and helping you center yourself. Yeah, I know, I just said that they added a tension-increasing subplot. You’re still going to walk out of there feeling calmer and ready to take on what needs to be taken on. Seriously, go see it.

In the meantime, Ramón and I are going to see Doctor Strange in a couple of hours because we haven’t had a Date Night since September and gosh darn it, we deserve one. Luckily people have warned me that the 3D version can get kinda urpy at times if you’re prone to motion sickness (which I am), so we’re going to the regular version. And while I am not the aficionado of the Batch that many of my friends are, I do appreciate his aesthetics and am looking forward to him sounding like Greg House’s son for two hours.