Steve Buscemi has been making us laugh for so long that we forget he’s also had quite a career as a filmmaker. With films such as Lonesome Jim, Trees Lounge, and most recently 2007’s Interview, Buscemi takes his time in picking the projects he wants to direct. His latest, The Listener, is a drama starring Tessa Thompson and her real-life dog, Coltrane.
Thompson is the only human actor to appear in The Listener, playing Beth, a crisis helpline operator taking calls throughout a trying night. While we never see them, some of the voices you’ll hear are by an A-list cast of Rebecca Hall, Alia Shawkat, Margaret Cho, Derek Cecil, Blu Del Barrio, Jamie Hector, Casey Wilson, and Logan Marshall-Green.
Buscemi is directing from a script by The Messenger co-writer, Alessandro Camon.
Here’s the synopsis: Directed by Steve Buscemi and starring Tessa Thompson as Beth, a helpline volunteer who is part of the small army that gets on the phone every night across America, fielding calls from all kinds of people feeling lonely, broken, hopeless. Over the last year, the tide has become a tsunami. As Beth goes through her shift, the stakes rise: is this the night she will lose someone? Save someone? Eventually, Beth’s own story comes to light, revealing why she does it. All along we remain with her: listening, comforting, connecting – patching the world back together, one stitch at a time.
The Listener debuts day and date on March 29th.
