Some very slight material supposedly held together by an isolated phone booth in the Mojave desert. Various characters explain their problems to an unknown individual named Greta on the other end of the line. There are four episodes all seeming to have something to do with sexual frustration, jealousy, and magnetic tape. Countless conversations enlighten Greta about desperate boyfriends, bitchy girlfriends, best friend pimps, and U.F.O. alien parasites. It's unbelievable that all this nonsense is supposed to make sense, after characters from the different episodes eventually come together. Just another bad DVD for my garage sale. - MERK
Add a Review
-
merklekranz2 October 2010
-
acolben13 January 2007In a time where the corporations of the motion picture industry give the public rehashes of films already made, this film rises above the studio mentality and gives you something that is......original. Not only is the that, but it makes you think about the modes of communication that todays technology offer the public and how these modes have hindered true intimacy, as well as the comfortability (or lack thereof) that people have with intimacy. The stories in this film are gently insane, but only as insane as real life stories in real people's lives. The writing, is wonderful, the story is excellent, the editing is superb, and the acting is quite good.
-
imizrahi200220 November 2008but i can't... but i CAN give you a reflection on my experience of this film... it wasn't terrible. and, when deciding what to see, that should never be part of my criteria...there's LOTS of stuff out there. this was fairly amateurish writing bolstered by a few strong performances... and, even though it had a clever idea to springboard from, AND as 'original'(and this is definitely part of why i'm convinced people who helped make this movie are just trying to get 'free hype' on this site, which makes this i sore) as some other commentors said it was, it was, to be kind, not all that clever... for me, though, when it was over, it became an exercise in, 'ok, genius...what would make this movie BETTER...'. i mean, after all, it's EASY to pick something apart...much harder to put it together... i don't want to spoil it for anyone who'd still care to see this... EYE was intrigued, obviously... but it'll be obvious at the end of the movie who i'm speaking about when i say that they should have developed one of the central characters more...i never found out enough about THIS central figure... and that might've made it just cohesive enough so that i wouldn't've felt compelled to write this caveat...
-
drcdrc9 December 2006The 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.
-
skmills12 December 2006I have been going over MPB in my mind on a fairly regular basis since I saw it at the FirstGlance Hollywood Film Fest and I again commend director/writer John Putch for really capturing in such a raw and gentle way the extremes of need and outreach. When I find myself actually believing that the guy is going to get rid of the alien bugs (on that wonderfully created zany, hopelessly neurotic woman), I know the casting and writing are doing their jobs very well. I also thought the "sane" half of the lesbian couple was amazing. Also, the scene where the real estate lie was revealed had such an unexpected punch to it. Every single actor was off the dial. Not one wrong note and hundreds of great choices. Having it on the outskirts of Vegas creates such a symbiosis between 2 emptiness-es, we realize there is nowhere to hide. We are all drowning in the wide open vacuum of our own disconnection, no matter how we try to dress it up. It is really a phenomenal indictment of what happens to the American Dreamer when the roots of the soul have atrophied and only the unnourished surface is left.
-
filmchap21 November 2006If 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.
-
akasevich14 January 2007I 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!) -
Poe-171 February 2009I'd like to give this a higher score but you've got to allow for pristine excellence. MPB doesn't have that but it noses around in that area.
As you've read in other comments, the phone booth (until 2000) was real, the tales told in the movie are fictional. The very real phone booth inspired someone (you can look it up) to weave tales around a very unique phone booth.
The concept is something someone should have made up but took a niche of reality to jump start things. It would have been such a triumph for someone to cobble this together from scratch. But so much of fiction uses the hodgepodge of fact for a launching pad. No foul. It's how things work.
In the movie, it's one lady (suspiciously wise, lady) who calls the MPB ... and, occasionally, someone is there to answer it. When that happens, the ability of humans to be confessional with a disembodied voice (versus face to face with people we know)kicks in and the stories that create the film unfold.
It's a wonderful format and allows an experimental exploration of cinema on several levels.
It's just plain enjoyable and fascinating because it tinkers with something that exists in our world and something that tinkers with what we wish, might, possibly, perhaps, could exist in our world.
In reality, once the phone number for the MPB was out; everyone would be calling it, trying to connect with someone at that lone outpost and reduce its "special-ness" and "unique-ness" to lowest levels of mediocrity.
That's what we do. Something very special and unique shows up and we leap upon it, shred it, commercialize it, suck it dry of any meaning and slap it on t-shirts and bumper stickers, thump our chests and go looking for the next significant thing we can reduce to nothingness with our rampant and relentless egos.
This film takes a pause with a very special something that really existed and wonders what would happen if the honest human element got hold of it.
And a collection of stories come together.
When it's over, you might find yourself thinking about all the other things that could happen if we had a phone booth in the middle of nowhere that would ring at random times and have a disembodied entity on the other end that could help us find our way through whatever dilemma enveloped our lives at the moment.
Wouldn't you love something like that? I would.
I don't have the answers. I'd like to knock words with someone who might.
Nice foundation for a different kind of film. Fortunately; it's called "Mojave Phone Booth".
Worth your time. -
alweiss28 March 2007I'll leave it to others to discuss the plot, acting and photography other than to say that many of the shots in this movie could be printed and hung on your wall as art. The cinematography by Keith Duggan is spectacular. Well, I'll also say that the characters come across as real people- people that you feel you might actually have among your friends.
I saw this picture at the Sedona Film Festival. "What a great picture," I thought. After the showing, Jerry Rapp, the co-writer and co-producer came up to answer some questions. Then I was completely blown away. Some facts about the movie: 1) Shooting time? 18 days! 2) Number in crew? No more than 8 at a time, and that includes director/writers/ producers! Many of them did double duty. 3) Everyone drove themselves to and from the set or location. And, speaking of cars, the cars you see the actors driving in the movie are their own cars! 4) There was no up-front pay. However, gas money was provided along with food. All crew and talent are share holders in 50% of the film's grosses after the initial production budget is recouped. That is, after the budget is payed back, 50% of whatever the movie makes is split evenly between everyone involved. (I don't know who gets the other 50%. But, whoever it is, deserves it.) Shows what a dedicated group of professionals can accomplish if they work together.
The only other comment I'll make is to relieve the consternation someone else might have. The background music during the first episode was hauntingly familiar. During the Q&A I asked Jerry if it was original or came from another source. It was original but inspired by the 1974 Gene Hackman film, The Conversation. If you've seen that film, you'll know why it was haunting.
Keep your eye out for this picture and when it comes around, see it!
P.S., If you want to know what Jerry Rapp looks like, he's the flower delivery boy in the movie. I told you everybody did double duty in this movie. -
ericmuhr29 September 2007Categorized 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.
-
gombass11 April 2008Though I don't know the validity of the history of an actual "Mohave phone booth", the idea of a grass-roots internet site does remind me of the marketing plan for the Blair Witch Project. I saw "Mohave" at the 2007 Staten Island Film Festival and was a little disappointed that there was no Q&A afterward. Overall, this movie is of high professional quality from the acting, directing, sound, and editing...and of course producing. Definitely is of quality and ready for mass marketing. The only problem is this movie would have to be dumbed down to appeal to the masses. A must see if you want to watch a quality independent film. The magnetic tape, though...I didn't get it. Why wasn't there a Q&A in Staten Island???
-
sinistercard14 December 2006Another place this story about the phone booth was discussed was on Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell. The location is actually 9 miles East Southeast of Baker California in the aforementioned Preserve in a place called Devil's Playground! Annabeth Gish is a dish! One caller to Art Bell was a " Desert Chad" who camped out as described.....he hailed from the Bay area.On a related foot note......I myself was a caller on the phone booth " in the middle of nowhere " show. Word has it that the park rangers eventually had to shut the phone down by removing it due to the environmental impact of too many people wandering to and from it! The phone booth was originally placed to help miners on a break nearby to make calls they couldn't otherwise.Waiting to find this on DVD.