j* movie reviews 2020

Signs (2002)

The most oddball family alien film ever.

There are so many different ways that aliens and their interactions with humanity are constructed on film. From the straight up destroy and fertilise of War of the Worlds, to the defend and protect of Transformers, to the pet vibes of E.T. There's a broad spectrum of human-alien interaction. And yet somehow Signs manages to do something that always feels quite different. It's like an alien film that doesn't even want to be, focussing far more on the domesticity of the corn growing family.

Corn fields are nearly always going to end in tears when they appear on film.

So Signs follows the thoughts and ponderings of our main family as aliens invade. At least I think they're invading. They start by making crop circles. Then they seem to escalate to poking around the house and torturing the dogs. Eventually they start breaking and entering and at one poing Mel Gibson chops off their fingers. It's truly weird. Joaquin Phoenix plays Mel's brother, and the two of them are pretty relatable as family. And there's the two kids... they are epic.

Most of the film is trying to decide what the right emotions are for alien invasion. The kids start getting their info from some (arguably) conspiracy book, and Joaquin gets obsessed with tv news. Mel spends most of his time trying to flush out the alien on his block. There are so many super tight shots within the house and human enclaves... it's not really a horror, broadly a sci-fi and mostly a ... is there such a thing as a human procedural? Because this family just does the random family type stuff.

There's a great sidestory in here about how Mel Gibson's wife got killed in a car crash (Shylaman cameo!) and thus he lost his faith, which is a bit problematic as a preacher. And the aliens don't really help his belief systems.

The high point of this film is the tinfoil hats. And every time we get to that point we pause the film and go and make the hats. You never really do find out much about the aliens... but you do find out a lot about the humans.

J* gives it 4 stars.