057 Signs (2002)

“IS IT POSSIBLE, THAT THERE ARE NO COINCIDENCES.“

As the “family vs aliens" genre receives another entry in Jordan Peele’s Nope, we at Retro Grade Podcast decided to talk about a similarly themed movie that recently celebrated it’s 20th anniversary. We are talking about, M Night Shyamalan’s Signs, starring Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin and Abigail Breslin. We talk about how this movie left an impact on our childhoods, and it’s unexpected relatability in a post-911, mid-COVID America of today. We talk about the scenes that scared us, the scenes that made us laugh, the scenes that made us want to cry, and how Shyamalan packs all of this into one emotional roller coaster of a movie, that still makes us feel all of the things.

We gush about the strengths of the films cohesive structure and rant about how the current obsession over finding “plot holes“ is ruining our ability to enjoy movies. Seriously, stop trying to find plot holes. If you want to find them, you will find them in every single alien invasion movie, and perhaps any movie you want. Suspension of disbelief is something you need to have to appreciate storytelling, especially when it comes to movies.

We talk about the writer-director’s fall from grace, and whether or not he deserved the degree of criticism that he got. Shyamalan became known as the twist director, but how many of his films actually have twists? We talk about how widespread it became to ridicule Shyamalan and purposefully mispronounce his last name, and how he alone seemingly took the fall for the failure of the film adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender. During the late aughts we saw a lot of terrible adaptations of beloved franchises, but how many of them do we still hold a grudge against to the person that directed them?

We discuss the different style of acting we see in this film. We don’t see big emotional performances, but instead get these grounded characters in the quiet moments of an impending apocalypse. Performances that help make the film so incredibly personal and charming. Even Mel Gibson, despite his controversial statements, outbursts, wild conspiracy theories, questionable politics and hateful comments, makes us want to root for Graham Hess. The severity of the controversies is something we touch on in this episode. Some people should probably be in jail, or perhaps not be allowed to make films ever again, but how does Hollywood decide who gets a second chance?

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