The Listener

Name: The Listener
Genre: Drama
Released: March 29, 2024
Duration: 96 min
Rating: 64
Cast: Alia Shawkat, Blu del Barrio, Bobby Soto, Derek Cecil, Jack Perry

2024

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Generally favorable reviews based on 9 Critic Reviews

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The Listener: I'm Just Here To Listen

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Movie Details & Credits

Vertical Entertainment | Release Date: March 29, 2024 | Not Rated

Starring: Alia Shawkat, Blu del Barrio, Bobby Soto, Derek Cecil, Jack Perry, Jamie Hector, Karli Kaiser, Logan Marshall-Green, Margaret Cho, Rebecca Hall

Summary: When evening sets in, Beth (Tessa Thompson) is one of many volunteers manning helplines to lend a kind ear to people in crisis. The Listener charts a night in Beth’s life listening to the problems of faceless people and trying her best to help them. Always difficult, often disturbing, and, on that rare occasion, transformative, Beth’s nightWhen evening sets in, Beth (Tessa Thompson) is one of many volunteers manning helplines to lend a kind ear to people in crisis. The Listener charts a night in Beth’s life listening to the problems of faceless people and trying her best to help them. Always difficult, often disturbing, and, on that rare occasion, transformative, Beth’s night provides a cross-section of American society through the prism of mental health. … Expand

Director: Steve Buscemi

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 96 min

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Critic Reviews

RogerEbert.com Matt Zoller Seitz

Apr 1, 2024

It's sensitive, subtle, and restrained, and asks more of the audience than it's typically willing to give. Read full review

Kristen Lopez

Jun 13, 2023

It’s a character study, a moody atmospheric piece of contemplation with one character who, through interacting with others, unseen, on the phone comes away with a grander understanding of self. We, as the audience, come away with a grander understanding of our own interactions and how life changes without us ever knowing about it. Read full review

Collider Taylor Gates

Jun 13, 2023

There’s a lot to like about The Listener, with Thompson’s performance easily being the highlight. It’s a simple yet powerful story of finding connection and hope through the dark times. Read full review

Leslie Felperin

Jun 13, 2023

The whole collaboration feels undeniably stagey, but it’s still an empathic and frequently moving work that touches on the sheer volume of callers that workers like Thompson’s character, often unpaid volunteers, must contend with every day. Read full review

Wendy Ide

Jun 13, 2023

The cumulative stress of the pandemic is everywhere, as pervasive and ubiquitous as the omicron variant. Beth’s lonely home-working set-up; the eerie quiet in the predawn hours; the brittle desperation in the callers’ voices; the sheer volume of cries for help: it all captures the sense of teetering on the brink, the uncertainty, the unfamiliar anxieties of the first lockdown. Read full review

The Guardian Peter Bradshaw

Jun 13, 2023

This is an intriguing, if undeveloped performance piece, elevated by Thompson’s class. Read full review

Guy Lodge

Jun 13, 2023

Though the global pandemic is only incidentally mentioned, The Listener plays in all aspects like a project conceived in the most self-searching and self-indulgent depths of the isolation era. Read full review

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