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Big Man Japan (2007)
7/10
A documentary group follows Daisato, a man who is following in his family's tradition of protecting Tokyo from wacky giant monsters via being jolted with electricity and becoming a giant man with a beating stick. As times of have changed, he's not at all as appreciated as his forebears, and is estranged from family and his agent.
Written, directed and starring Japanese comedian Hitoshi Matsumoto, the film is sometimes incomprehensible, often quirky, sometimes funny, winking at Japanese sci-fi and kaiju TV shows, and splitting between lighthearted and languish.
The Signal (2014)
6/10
Three MIT college students road trip through the Southwest. Nic, and his buddy, Jonah, are moving his girlfriend Hailey (Olivia Cooke) to California. The trio detour to confront an ominous hacker.
The film is in the dark heady emotional sci-fi horror vein of Soderbergh's Solaris and Duncan Jones' Moon, just not nearly as successful. I didn't so much mind the lack of narrative information, in the space between when our heroes go underground and the ending reveal, rather that span's discomfort and disorientation didn't seem to aid or setup a comprehensible catharsis. Still, the film direction is effectively stylish, accompanied by an evocative soundtrack.
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