By: Laura Moreno
Premiering on ALLBLK on Roku and Prime Video, the gripping independent film “Long Time Listener” is a mystery/thriller worth watching. Written by John Doolan and Joe Narode, it is the first film directed by Danielle Nicolet.
The tables turn when Genesis, the host of a popular true crime podcast called “Something to Stalk About,” becomes the target of stalking by a long time devoted listener. What begins as an series of disconcerting coincidences and unsettling messages soon escalates into a full-blown reign of psychological terror.
Lead character podcaster Genesis Taylor played by Meagan Holder (“Monarch,” “Pitch”) is an out bisexual who is described as being “allergic to commitment,” even though she is in a relationship with Elle, played by director Danielle Nicolet (“The Flash”), fans are thrilled to discover.
To its credit, “Long Time Listener” seamlessly integrates its LGBTQ representation while remaining squarely focused on the suspenseful action. No doubt, focusing less on LGBT-specific issues reflects a broader trend toward more organic, less tokenized representations of LGBT characters in film.
The extremely talented, nearly all-POC cast features Lyriq Bent (“She’s Gotta Have It,” Tyler Perry’s “Acrimony”) as Carter, and Cleo Berry as Max. All in all, the crackling chemistry among the actors is one of the great strengths of this character-driven noir-esque film.
The staff all get along and things are going great. Then corporate pushes for the podcast to keep pushing the boundaries, the danger limits, for more and more clicks until things go off the rails.
The main character Genesis begins to question the wisdom and ethics of packaging the real misery of others as content for profit. But there’s no urgency. The problem in a nutshell is that Genesis is blissfully unaware of the depth of the insanity that lurks in the audience…until it’s too late.
A fascination with true crime
This is an excellent production. With great expertise, the director and cinematographers have created a truly creepy atmosphere that perfectly captures the growing paranoia of being stalked.
Granted there are a few holes in plot twists, but they are negligible. More importantly, a few of the technological “errors” that have been flagged by others, it seems to me, could possibly be intentional throwbacks to the more cinematic technological limitations of older technologies, like certain features of land line telephones that are ubiquitous in the popular horror films we grew up with.
An perfect illustration is the chill of hearing a dial tone at just the right time in the action, or not being able to access a phone just out of reach… It’s just not the same on the big screen when today’s mobile phones have no dial tone, and you can ask Siri for help in contacting the police, over-riding long-standing cinematic horror motifs.
In other ways, too, “Long Time Listener” makes great use of a style commonly used in 1990s horror films and thrillers, now perceived with nostalgia.
Emotions like intimidation are conveyed through visual cues such as slanted cameras angles, partial visibility, shadows and silhouettes. Suspense is created and builds without the assistance of special effects at all.
Audiences really appreciate the throwback vibe, so different from today’s scaled back minimalist approach to horror storytelling.
Nonetheless, the plot of “Long Time Listener” is not exactly new and might have seemed like a bit of a tired story if not for the film’s rare meta-commentary on the true crime genre and the manufactured intimacy with audiences that produces one-sided attachments toward media figures.
It’s fascinating that “Long Time Listener” questions whether consuming content like this film itself is healthy for audiences. What does the growing popularity of the true crime genre say about our society and our collective future?
In the course of this 85-minute long film, Genesis goes from a confident person who drives most of the action to a passive vulnerable person who constantly reacts to the actions of others around her.
The consensus is that “Long Time Listener” really delivers while demonstrating a depth and self-awareness rarely seen in the thriller genre.
Now streaming on Prime Video & ALLBLK on Roku.