Matt
Arrival is one of Matt's go-to films. He puts it on regularly and calls it close to flawless for his taste. The opening scene grabs you right away and sets up how much is at stake in Amy Adams' character's life. The story stays tightly focused on one objective: learning a language nobody has any record of, and figuring out why the aliens are here. Denis Villeneuve drops small hints throughout, and it all comes together near the end. You could finish it and immediately watch it again, and everything clicks.
He also thinks Jeremy Renner deserves more credit than "Hawkeye." Between The Hurt Locker and a role like this, he has real depth.
Jeff
Jeff hadn't seen it since 2016 and rewatched it on Matt's recommendation with his son. The audio is incredible, and the bass rumbles the whole way through on a good sound system. The storytelling is deliberate, and some would say slow, which may be why it doesn't land for everyone. It absolutely landed for him.
The Project Hail Mary problem
We both laughed at the comparison: Ryan Gosling cracks an alien language in about three seconds in Project Hail Mary, while in Arrival that process is the entire movie. Building a language from nothing takes brilliant people a long time, and Arrival treats it that way.