The Listener

The Listener is a drama about Beth, a volunteer for a telephone crisis line in the United States. Throughout a single shift, she handles calls from various individuals experiencing loneliness and despair during a time of increased demand for the service. As she works to comfort and support the callers, the tension grows over whether she can prevent a tragedy. The narrative eventually explores Beth's own personal history to explain her motivation for this work.

The film was directed by Steve Buscemi, following his previous directorial efforts Trees Lounge, Animal Factory, Interview, and AMEX Unstaged Presents: Vampire Weekend. Tessa Thompson stars as Beth and also served as a producer alongside Buscemi and Oren Moverman. The supporting cast includes Logan Marshall-Green, Derek Cecil, Margaret Cho, Blu del Barrio, and Ricky Velez, who all provide voices for the characters on the other end of the phone. The screenplay was written by Alessandro Camon. On TMDB, the movie has a rating of 5.5/10 based on 22 votes.