Director Joel Schumacher
Starring Colin Farrell, Kiefer Sutherland, Forest Whitaker
Rated M
Score 4/6

Publicist Stuart Shepard finds himself trapped in a phone booth, pinned down by an extortionist’s sniper rifle. Unable to leave or receive outside help.

Screenwriter Larry Cohen originally pitched the concept of a film that takes place entirely within a phone booth to Alfred Hitchcock in the 1960s. Hitchcock liked the idea, but he and Cohen were unable to figure out a plot reason for keeping the film confined to a booth. Once the idea of a sniper came to Cohen in the late 1990s, he was able to write the script in under a month.
I actually have vague memories of watching this in the friendly neighborhood cinema (its a little daunting that this movie is over 20 years old)  when it was originally released, though the decision to revisit this was a weeknight whim after having this sitting on my Disney+ watchlist for the past few months. Considering the surge in popularity of mobile phones in the past 20 years the monologue about Phone Booths in New York was surprisingly interesting.Though I know I have watched movies directed Joel Schumacher in the past, after watching Phone Booth I was left with this feeling that I should watch a few more of his movies.This is a really good example of Colin Farrell’s early work as he knocked it out of the park with a monologue towards the end of the movie. Even though for most of the movie he is not on screen Kiefer Sutherland is brilliant in a creepy sort of way and The Caller comes across as somebody who doesn’t see himself as evil and perhaps believes he was doing this for the benefit of Farrell’s character Stu. It was great to see a familiar presence like Richard T. Jones, who was cast as Sergeant Cole, popped up in this.