Broadcast Signal Intrusion (Dark Sky Films DVD)
The title sounds like a training video, but the 2021 film is intriguing, surprisingly engrossing. James (Harry Shum Jr.), haunted by his wife’s disappearance, becomes obsessed by occasional acts of “video pirates” who interrupted broadcast signals with a strange broadcast of their own: an apparition with mouth agape accompanied by unsettling sounds. He comes to see links between those hacks with the disappearance of several women, including his wife.
Set in 1999, BSI makes good use of that era’s technology. Not trusting the walkie-talkie-size cellphones as his paranoia mounts, he resorts to readily available pay phones. Chat rooms provide clues. Director Jacob Gentry casts his horror thriller in the form of a neo-noir with wet nocturnal streets, dark colored neon and a mysterious boss operating from a basement office as James descends into a labyrinth that leads down one rabbit hole after another as nightmares turn into reality. (David Luhrssen)
Don’t Look Up (Streaming on Netflix, Dec. 24)
This off-kilter satire asks: What if Earth were on the brink of being destroyed and no one cared? Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio portray an PhD student astronomer and her professor, who discover an extinction-level comet that will collide with Earth in six months. They explain the impending disaster to an indifferent POTUS (Meryl Streep), and her Chief of Staff son (Jonah Hill), who are only interested in the upcoming election.
In an effort to get the word out, the astronomers appear on a popular morning show. The hosts (Cate Blanchett and Tyler Perry) offer little help, quickly moving on to happy topics that win viewers. Although director Adam McKay attempts to work male/female double standards into his parody, like the rest of the film, slipshod, dumbed down humor mainly misses its mark. Watch for Mark Rylance as a tech billionaire excited to mine the comet’s precious minerals, rather than save the world. (Lisa Miller)
Sensation (Limited theatrical release and Ssreaming on AppleTV, Dec. 31)
Writer/Director Martin Grof’s interesting sci-fi premise follows a London postal carrier, curious about his ancestry. After Andrew Cooper (Eugene Simon) submits his DNA for analysis, he is visited by Dr. Marinus (Alastair B. Cumming) and compelled to attend a mysterious institute. Cooper and the other students learn of their special abilities from their supervisor (Emily Wyatt) who informs them they can send to, receive from and control the senses of others. The students’ training occurs during bizarre scenarios that prompt the postman to question reality. The story plods along, failing to identify a theme that would give it meaning. (Lisa Miller)
