In 1988, Oliver Stone released his undervalued adaptation of Eric Bogosian’s one man show, Talk Radio. Both the play and Stone’s film were commentaries on the broken America of the time, each one using the voices of varied phone callers to expound on our fractured society. Existing in the same style and arena of sociopolitical discourse, Steve Buscemi’s The Listener is a riveting drama with an excellent performance from Tessa Thompson.

Thompson is Beth, a woman who volunteers at a crisis hotline. A lonely woman carrying her own personal pain who spends her nights listening to (and dissecting the problems of) her callers, Beth works the night shift from the small apartment she shares with her dog and her own troubles. This particular night begins with a caller who was recently released from jail post-Covid. As Beth guides him through his session, the film gets started with a tad bit of amusement. Here is a guy who went to prison for armed robbery (while wearing a mask) who finds it ironic that now he MUST wear a mask while inside a store. This is the first in what will be a series of conversations throughout the night, as the film takes place in real time during one full shift, Beth’s last.

There will be calls filled with sadness and regret, a little poetry and truth, and some that just might unnerve the lone Beth. In one particularly jarring moment, a seemingly good natured man slowly morphs into a misogynist who reveals his pride in creating revenge porn through deep-fake technology. Beth is clearly disturbed by the caller’s boastful attitude towards his crimes and locks her door after the call. There is a dark world out there and she will not let it breach the walls of her home and infect her any more than it already has.

Thompson is particularly good at portraying the emotional toll this type of work takes on her character. Beth is beginning to find it harder to keep a distance between her and her callers, as some of their problems seem to mirror her own. Thompson doesn’t overplay her emotional hand, exuding a natural warmth while carefully allowing the audience into Beth’s life through the smallest of details found in the conversations. The film and the actress understand the importance of not overexposing the details of Beth’s life. As if we were one of her callers, the audience doesn’t come away with a deep knowledge or understanding of her life, but as she opens up a bit more to each faceless voice, we learn just enough to know her for these short moments. Thompson’s work here is a refined and beautifully natural performance that anchors an already involving film.

Written by Alessandro Camon, The Listener finds potency in the problems that lie within the country’s mental health issues. Made only one year after Covid-19, loneliness is the main theme. Camon’s screenplay examines how time alone with no one to talk to can take our minds to sometimes ugly places. The film doesn’t judge. Through Beth and her conversations with the faceless voices on her phone, Camon and director Buscemi explore various levels of isolation and despondency, finding a human connection through those relatable emotions.

Steve Buscemi guides the film gently and directs with compassion for the subject matter. With patient takes and deep focus on Beth and her callers, there is a tenderness to his craft here that makes this a special piece and one of the best works of Buscemi’s directing career.