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In Theaters Now
  • 2024
  • Vertical Entertainment
  • 1 h 36 m
  • 2024
  • Vertical Entertainment
  • 1 h 36 m

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 ni...

Directed By: Steve Buscemi

Written By: Alessandro Camon

In Theaters Now
  • 2024
  • Vertical Entertainment
  • 1 h 36 m
  • 2024
  • Vertical Entertainment
  • 1 h 36 m

The Listener

Metascore Generally Favorable Based on 9 Critic Reviews
64
User Score Available after 4 ratings
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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 ni...

Directed By: Steve Buscemi

Written By: Alessandro Camon

Where to Watch

View Showtimes

Top Cast

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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
Generally Favorable Based on 9 Critic Reviews
64
67% Positive
6 Reviews
33% Mixed
3 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews

Critic Reviews

 View All
Metascore
Generally Favorable Based on 9 Critic Reviews
64
67% Positive
6 Reviews
33% Mixed
3 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
75
Apr 1, 2024
It's sensitive, subtle, and restrained, and asks more of the audience than it's typically willing to give.
By Matt Zoller Seitz FULL REVIEW
75
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.
By Taylor Gates FULL REVIEW
70
Mar 28, 2024
For their part, Buscemi and Thompson utilize the complementary power of stillness and the close-up to create a portrait of a woman who hears so much and divulges so little.
By Lisa Kennedy FULL REVIEW
70
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.
By Wendy Ide FULL REVIEW
70
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.
By Leslie Felperin FULL REVIEW
50
Mar 29, 2024
Tessa Thompson answering phone calls is not enough to justify a feature-length film. A short film absolutely would have knocked this out of the park, but there is just nothing holding your attention here.
FULL REVIEW
50
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.
By Guy Lodge FULL REVIEW

User Reviews

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Details

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Production Company Hantz Motion Pictures, Olive Productions, Sight Unseen Pictures
Release Date Mar 29, 2024
Duration 1 h 36 m
Genres
Tagline Lives are on the line.
View All Details

Awards

The Hague Movies that Matter Festival
• 1 Nomination

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