THE NEXT SPIELBERG - That's how the current cover of Newsweek touts M. Night Shyamalan, whose new supernatural-themed thriller Signs stars Mel Gibson as a Pennsylvania farmer investigating a mysterious pattern of circles and lines engraved in his crops (opens Friday). Frankly, I think the comparison does the talented writer/director of The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable a bit of a disservice.

Despite all of his acclaim and the quality of films such as Jaws, Schindler's List, E.T., and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, I've never been able to jump on the Spielberg bandwagon. Saving Private Ryan is magnificent at times and yet terribly flawed - most notably, the awkwardly staged and sanctimonious scenes with the older Ryan that open and close the movie. The same is true for his recent sci-fi, not exactly-noir Minority Report . But enough about Spielberg...

As Jeff Giles' insightful profile explains, Shyamalan will probably appreciate the comparison. Giles writes: "Shyamalan is every bit the movie buff that the ’70s auteurs were. His idols are unapologetically pop, though: not Fellini, Bergman and Kurosawa, but Hitchcock, Lucas and Spielberg." Sure enough, Shyamalan lists Raiders of the Lost Ark and Jaws as two of his all-time favorite movies.

David Ansen raves about Signs in the sidebar review, remarking that it, "like The Sixth Sense and even the misconceived but artfully directed Unbreakable, forces you to lean forward, in anticipation and dread, and absorb. And like all things you stare at intently, his unsettling movies hang around in your head long after they’re over."

Ansen's use of the word "misconceived" to describe Unbreakable, a movie that received mostly tepid reviews and an even colder response at the box office, is curious because it isn't completely clear who he is referring to. Was Shyamalan's conception of the film flawed? Or was it the audience who went in (wrongfully but naturally) expecting The Sixth Sense and left disappointed? Ansen probably means the former; I say the latter; though Unbreakable is far from perfect, especially considering the awful text epilogue that almost ruined the ending of the movie. (Read my original review here.)

While Unbreakable is an underrated movie in my estimation, I might go so far as to say the same about The Sixth Sense. [How can that be? It was a critical and financial smash! In fact, it's one of the top ten highest grossing movies of all-time! --ed.] True, but people remember it more for its surprise ending than they do for Shyamalan's masterful writing and subtle, suspenseful direction throughout. The scene in the car between Toni Collette and Haley Joel Osment at the end of the film, where the boy finally reveals his secret to his mom, and explains that her dead mother is proud of her, still provokes an emotional response from me whenever I see it.

Shyamalan has shown an uncanny ability so far to thrill us without pandering - to entertain and make us think at the same time. How many directors right now can you say that about? Chris Nolan, Steven Soderbergh, P.T. Anderson, maybe a few others. Signs, which Ansen calls "a family thriller intended as an exploration of faith," should further his status as one of Hollywood's most interesting and exciting filmmakers. Is he the next Spielberg, as Newsweek says? I say, why try to hold him back?

I'll have a review of Signs posted sometime this weekend. Hopefully it will live up to my hype.

If anyone out there has managed to see either Wide Awake (1998) or Praying with Anger (1992), Shyamalan's two barely-seen films prior to The Sixth Sense, I'd love to hear about them.