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Obviously, this is a completely ludicrous scenario and it’s very difficult to believe that someone crazy enough to take justice into his own hands with a high powered rifle is also intelligent and resourceful enough to manipulate the public telephone system well enough to pull off some of the things he does in this movie. But the goal here, and the only real dramatic arc in the movie, belongs to Stu, who begins to transition from self-centered douchebag to...something else over the course of his ordeal. I can’t lie - it really is voyeuristically satisfying to see a slimy PR guy get his comeuppance, fantastical as it all may be.

And it’s kind of funny to imagine Kiefer Sutherland as the avenging angel, doing his best Hannibal Lecter impression as he guns down sleazeballs with impunity.

Unfortunately, there’s a point where the story takes a sharp turn, softening its focus on Stu in order to offer a not so subtle swipe at celebrity culture and public obsession with popular media. While Farrell is the mouthpiece, I'm not sure who's giving the speech. Is it Schumacher? That doesn't resonate very well, coming from someone whose professional credibility relies so much on good publicity. Is it Larry Cohen? His screenplay was originally written for Alfred Hitchcock (I’d pay real money to see THAT movie) before getting swept under the rug for decades. I guess if it took me 40 years to get a movie made, I might be a little bitter, too.

And it always feels disingenuous when the media attempts to point the finger at itself - or worse yet, its audience, whose patronage it increasingly craves at any cost. But I don’t know, despite the meta hypocrisy, I kind of enjoy an unapologetic fable once in a while, especially when it's aimed so squarely at adults. Schumacher tastefully directs this film, allowing his actors space to breathe. Farrell carries the film and does so quite well, showing a lot of range and making me feel sad that he’s not more successful than he is today. In fact, while the story’s climax is abrasively melodramatic, I found I cared enough - at least about Stu - to more or less take it in stride.

The ending itself feels like a bit of a copout, but without it we wouldn’t be rewarded with the final scene we get - which is the lesser of two possible options, but definitely the most fun.

Joel Schumacher is an interesting, and often polarizing director. In my opinion, his movies fall into one of three categories. The ones that miss (St Elmo’s Fire, which is awful, and 8MM, which is a Nicholas Cage movie), the ones that come close to the mark (The Lost Boys, Flatliners), and two of my favorite movies that nobody talks about any more - Falling Down and Phone Booth. Neither of those is a perfect film, of course, but in the case of Phone Booth, it accomplishes something that I really love about a well done morality play - it makes me think about myself. It makes me consider the question posed by the story which, in this case, is whether or not I’m being honest with myself and my loved ones about how I live my life.

Maybe that’s an anachronism, in today’s world of shiny, plastic paint-by=numbers event movies that we all forget within 90 minutes - but in this case, it’s also (mostly) a success.

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