Good story, Not enough for a whole film

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

No way this overly simplistic script, with basically one character, should be interpreted as feature entertainment. In reality it has about enough material for an eighteen minute short, and even that would seriously tax your attention span. Zero characters beyond Noble Willingham are developed. The never ending closeups of lips and telephones are sleep inducing, and the script is so underdeveloped that a chimpanzee could have written it. In fact this whole sad thing shouldn't have even been put on film. A tape recording would have been more than sufficient to put you to sleep. Definitely not recommended. - MERK

I actually had the privilege of taking a directing class with Andrew Shea. I think this film was very successful cinematic ally and in many different ways, but I ultimately I think the narrative structure amazingly innovative. It doesn't break the narrative rules by not being linear, but does something totally different that I can't even explain. My only critique of the movie is I didn't feel established enough with his past, so the memory of the rape felt a little to sudden and not developed enough, not enough transition. I was felt the transvesite character kind of swung the story out of wack a little but not too drastically, it just brought out this other element of the character's life that the movie didn't have time to deal with. Although the parts with the drag queen were treated with enough decency and was not too attention seeking that it didn't take to much away from the movie, and in its defense it did drive the narrative at certain points. You can see Andrew's genius come out through the characters considering the difficulty of the material. I also think that not showing the caller, which is a critique of most of the poor reviews, is actually a threshold of the film. It makes us sympathize and experience with the main character, because he never really sees this person either, and one of the greatest powers of this antagonist is his anonymity. Another critique is why does the man keep answering the phone which I think is another threshold of the film. He keeps answering because he has a guilt complex. He knows what he has done, even if its a repressed and subconscious memory, so he can't avoid it because he has an indescribable attraction to the situation. What these characters have to express to each other is complex and subtle (by this I mean the undercurrent of the humor, swearing, and the son toying with the father), which is accomplished by Andrew's amazing skills of working with actors. Ultimately a great film, even though it may take a few viewings, and I gave it only a 7 simply because I have been recently watching amazing films by Bergman, Wilder, and Hawks. Inspiring to see what you can do on a really low budget.

This film was thrust upon me by one of my more assertive friends, Pat. Pat's tastes and mine rarely mesh when it comes to movies, and when he put it in the vcr and insisted I see it, I wasn't too thrilled. But I must admit, I found it interesting. I knew nothing about it, so when I see this boat salesman resembling Boss Hogg answering the phone and hearing a goofily - voiced prank caller, I assumed it would be just one of several things that would be annoying and pointless. And at first, that is what I got. With every phone ring, and every chant of the man answering "Triple K Marine!" I was annoyed and confused. Is this the whole movie? Well, as it turns out, yes. But then a cool thing happened. The phone calls, while at first irritating, start to get less so when you do realize that they're the cornerstone of the entire film. Why does this prankster keep calling the boat salesman, and how much is the poor sap willing to take? Thus the movie became slowly more engrossing, and little by very little, more important information is revealed. It turns out there is more to this telephone terrorist than we at first think, and every new bit of information is awkwardly digested by the poor old boat salesman as we watch and wait to see what happens and what choices must be made. The ending is open to debate as to whether it made the whole slow buildup worth it, but I myself think it was. It's a good movie with a good (albeit maybe sad) ultimate message, even if it does take a long time to slowly unroll. But I must give credit to the script and the actors who perform it, because what could be a relentlessly maddening hour and a half of uninteresting phone conversations, is skillfully turned into an interesting and funny (and finally dramatic) story of two lives intersecting for a very legitamite reason. It's worth watching, if not just to hear the goofy phone calls (one of which features my favorite line, quoted at the top) and the even goofier reactions of the beleagered boat guy. Unique fun and drama, and an interesting surprise.

This movie was so funny it made me cry. Noble Willingham should have won an Oscar for his portrayal of a tormented redneck with a guilty conscience. The physical environment of the movie was totally successful at evoking small-town life in the South. When is this coming out on DVD? I gave it a 10.