Dreadfully Boring

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Categorized as drama, Mojave Phone Booth is the most tragically comic film I've ever seen. A showing at the Boise International Film Festival was punctuated with loud laughter as audience members connected with the painfully funny moments of space-alien paranoia, a botched suicide, an out-of-work administrative assistant sucked in to a lucrative menage a trois, and a desperate man who breaks into his girlfriend's car and steals her stereo system (four times) in an attempt to convince her that she'll be safer living with him. It's not that people in Boise, Idaho, are weird enough to have shared similar experiences. Instead, these impossibly strange scenarios perfectly illustrate the common American phenomenon in which we long for intimacy while resisting commitment. The phone booth in the desert -- a kind of secular confessional -- gives many of these characters their only meaningful (and vulnerable) human connection. Of course, the woman on the other end -- an older, English-accented lady with a fondness for Canada -- is no better off than those she counsels. She started calling the phone booth seven years earlier, seeking to connect with someone, anyone. Instead, she discovers her calling in listening to the problems of those on the other end.

I saw this movie at the Palm Springs International Film Festival a few days ago and really enjoyed the experience. The film offered everything I hoped to enjoy during my first film fest experience. It was creative, well thought out, featured phenomenal acting and complicated characters, and it tied together the multiple stories in a very natural way. Thanks to the producer, director, and cast for a memorable experience and for taking the time to speak with the audience in more depth about their vision and the process! (Thanks also to Christine Elise McCarthy for graciously taking a picture!)

The film tells the stories of four people who are all connected through the Mojave phone booth. The stories are fictional, but the Mojave phone booth was actually in service in the Mojave National Preserve until 2000, when the National Parks Service removed it. After the phone number appeared on a website in the late 90's, people from all over the world would call the number and visit the phone booth, and it became a cult icon. In the film, the same person always calls the phone booth and provides informal therapy sessions for each of the four main characters. The film is excellent, with richly drawn characters and captivating stories. Great acting by all the cast, but especially Annabeth Gish and Christine Elise. This is one of those movies you want to go see again to catch all the details and connections between the stories that may have slipped by on the first viewing.

If I remember correctly the guys who created the website would often drive out the booth in the middle of nowhere and spend a weekend camping by the phone waiting for it to ring. At first nobody seemed to ring the phone, but once they set up a website on the net they posted the number and from then on when they were camped out the phone would ring from all around the world. They post pictures on the site of them waiting for the phone to ring. They even made a recording of some of the conversations they had from the telephone with different people around the world. What was strange is that the phone company use to service this booth on a regular basis, even before anybody would seem to be using it. I have just seen the trailer and I must say the film looks very interesting. It's a pleasant surprise to see Steve Guttenberg is attached to this project. I have always liked this guy and he has sorely been missed from the big screen. I for one with be checking this movie out when it is released here in the UK. Keep an eye on this one folks, I think it's going to be a classic.