A Hopeful and Fascinating Close to 2016 A new ‘first contact’ film titled “Arrival” premiered this fall. Directed by Denis Villeneuve (“Sicaro,” “Prisoners,” and “Incendies”) and based on an award-winning short story by Ted Chiang, it focuses on linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) whose task is to overcome the language gap with the aliens. The timing of the film’s release could not have been...