It all leads to a frustrating push and pull between a film and its leading man. If anything, it feels like Gentry should have played this angle up-although he was likely concerned about turning “Broadcast Signal Intrusion” into a “missing wife” story-as Shum seems to want to give the project an urgency that it too often lacks. Its somebody in a tan suit, wearing sunglasses over a mask of Max Headroom a fictional AI character from an 80s T.V series. Whereas most people might investigate these intrusions with the fascination of a true crime podcast fan, James instantly suspects a connection to his trauma, and Shum is capable of conveying the way that grief can impact perception. Paranoia certainly hasn’t gone away since the ‘70s-it’s just gone online.Īn interesting yet underdeveloped component to this particular paranoia thriller is the grief that drives James as much as his curiosity. With increasing concerns over the power of tech, the disintegration of piracy, and the general distrust of government, it seems like a perfect time for a resurgence of the large scale paranoia thriller, and “Broadcast Signal Intrusion” could eventually look like the start of that subgenre’s return with hindsight. This Bray has had qr codes and other online stuff to hype his return instead of bogstandard vignettes. Yes i know Brays is gray and appears to maybe have a mustache similar to a Guy Fawkes mask. As it went on it got stranger and stranger, remembers Doctor Who fan Gary Zielinski. Phil Drinkwater and Tim Woodall’s script was very clearly inspired by conspiracy films of the ‘70s and ‘80s like “ The Parallax View” and “ Blow Out,” films with protagonists who become obsessed with the idea that they are just one clue away from solving everything. Googling a picture of a Max Headroom mask it bears a striking resemblance to Brays new mask. Suddenly, the Doctor was replaced by Max Headroomnot the 1980s comedy character Max Headroom, but a guy in a mask ranting through garbled audio. It turns out that the dates of the intrusions line up a little too neatly with those of missing women, and, of course, James has an emotional connection because the rumored third intrusion happened right around the time his wife Hannah disappeared. Max Headroom is a fictional artificial intelligence character portrayed by actor Matt Frewer. It’s not long before James is meeting shadowy figures in parking garages and alleys, getting clues about the origin of the intrusions and what they might mean. He instantly (too instantly, really) becomes obsessed with learning more, soon finding a recording of a second BSI and hearing rumors of a third. From a modern perspective, the Max Headroom hack looks like a scene from a hacker flick like Mr. plays James, a video archivist in Chicago in 1999 who stumbles upon a recording of a BSI that features a figure in a strange, slightly terrifying white mask.
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