Denis Villeneuve is one of the finest director's working today. This film continues to show that. Villeneuve has a firm grasp on the story, the characters, and the world they exist within, and has an adept way of putting that on screen. Villeneuve's use of color in this film allows the intertwining future and present narratives to be clearly defined. For example the tent where headquarters are in Montana for the most part has more of a blue tone while the scene where General Shang and Louise meet in the future is brilliantly lit to denote the difference in time. This is also a credit to the selection of Bradford Young the film's cinematographer.
Villeneuve also creates a very specific environment for the heptapods in the film. Even the way he shoots Louise and Ian being taken up into the ship gives the feeling of being warped out of the natural world into an atmosphere that is different, albeit subtly. And it is with this subtle touch that Villeneuve is able to both mask and slowly reveal that time is being altered by the learning of the heptapod language.
Vitally, he develops each character in a way that we as the audience know what they are experiencing emotionally in their journey. This allows us to root for them and be on the edge of our seats in moments of suspense such as the phone call Louise makes to General Shang when Agent Halpern is trying to stop her. To hinge the fate of the world on a single phone call and have it feel as if it's the most important call ever made is a testament to the director's craft in being able to give his film rhythm, his characters depth and by making the world so vividly alive that we believe, "Yes this is true."
