The Black Phone

You know how old people talk about how tough it was being a child when they were young? 

Not the thing about walking to school but about how tough and violent and poor everybody was. To be a child back then (whenever back then was) meant dealing with parents who would beat you for nothing and bullies who were out for blood. 

The Black Phone transports us to idyllic 1978 (the year I was born) and examines, for a moment, life among a group of schoolchildren. 

The movie looks great or maybe not great but it’s a look that yells “this is the 1970s
at you. It’s the same type of lens trickery that happens when Americans in the movies travel to Mexico and suddenly everything is orange. Which is to say that the director made a choice to make the entire movie have a color and texture that is different from almost everything else. 

So I can’t say it looks great because it’s not supposed to look great. But at least it isn’t filmed that flat Netflix/Marvel movie house style. 

Finney and Gwen are siblings but are close and protective of one another. Finney won’t stand up for himself against the school bullies (plot point) or stop his father from physically abusing his sister (plot point). 

Later he is captured by a deranged serial killer and starts getting calls on a phone in a basement that should not work. 

Ethan Hawke is a fine serial killer and another character, played by The Wire alum James Ransone, does an awful lot with very little.

Pity the plot calls for Hawke to wear a mask in nearly all of his scenes. There’s a reason why superhero movies demand that they keep taking off or losing their masks. We want to see these guys and gals emote. 

The movie features two horrific scenes where kids fight with one another. On one hand, I want to suggest that they are so violent that someone should have died. Because in real life if you get punched in the face that much you are gonna have serious problems. But on the other hand, I once watched a girl bash another girl’s head into a brick wall when I was in high school and I’m pretty sure everybody was mostly fine when it was over. 

There is a moment where two fighters are both injured and both slump down, out of the fray and next to one another on a chain link fence. I thought that moment, of two kids who should hate each other but are done fighting and just take a breather next to each other, was both interesting and poignant. 

But, this one never completely soared for me. Its story is very slight and the movie avoids the most gruesome aspects of a serial killer story. 

Of course, if it had shown those things there is a good chance I would have turned it off. Sometimes you can’t win no matter what road you take. 

Two other things stood out. Finney’s sister, Gwen, talks to Jesus several times during the movie. And man, I felt those discussions. 

Finally, the movie has a structure to it that leads to a satisfying conclusion. You will probably guess what’s going on before the end. It helps if you have already seen Signs. 

The plot work made me smile though and I was satisfied that everyone had thought the whole story through.