Crisis Hotline is a 2019 drama about a cynical counselor at a crisis hotline who finds himself on the other end of the line with a man and a troubling story.
Writer and director Mark Schwab‘s Crisis Hotline is a curious little venture, filmed in low light, in sparse settings, with a purposeful small stage-play feel that rolls out in two timelines, one the present and the other a recent past. It spins a number of plates in connecting its threads, from homosexuality, to drug use, to suicide, to pornography, and more, all through the filter of a crisis hotline. It’s a deliberately slow, talky affair with not much actual action that may test viewers looking for something with more momentum, but the filmmaker’s uniquely dark take and languid approach make it more than a little interesting, even if it doesn’t always find its footing.
Simon (Corey Jackson) is on his first week at an LGBT crisis hotline, not finding it as rewarding as he hoped, callers mostly complaining about significant others or lack of job prospects. That changes though when he gets Danny (Christian Gabriel) on the line, a young gay man who confesses he’s taking oxycontin in an attempt to kill himself, having a story to tell about a failed relationship with a guy named Kyle (Pano Tsaklas). That’s tricky enough for the new operator, but things take a turn when murder comes into play, leaving Simon scrambling to stop a real tragedy.
There are slow burning movies and then there is Crisis Hotline, a film that slips so placidly forward for the first three acts, it’s almost static, with motionless conversations dominating the film so pervasively it’s like looking at a series of still photographs. There is so little movement, it feels like a conscious choice by Schwab to limit his actors, sitting most of them at tables and on sofas where they talk and talk and talk. There is near to no energy with what’s happening on screen, people moving as if in slow motion.
However, the dialogue mostly rings true through as it begins to unspool its larger secret, the film a series of long flashbacks that catalogs Danny’s entanglement with Kyle, a man who seems to harbor some haunts that eventually darken the finale. It’s a genuinely troubling revelation, and kudos to Schwab for making a story with gay characters that doesn’t make that be what defines them, the couple not the plot but rather the manipulation of one over the other in a frightening game of criminal betrayal … and regret.
It’s almost tempting to call Schwab’s style daring, the stillness in the procedure and the leisurely pacing making this unusual to say the least. It’s not always believable, but there is a parable-esque hook to it meant to leave its audience with questions, some Simon outright asks himself. The limitations of the production leave some of the rawness pushed to the peripheral, the film not able to be as physical as it should, the relationship between Danny and Kyle sort of anemic when trying to convince us of their attraction, especially in the few moments of g-rated sex. However, the message is clear and while it takes time to get to it, the consequences feel earned, if not mostly readily foreseeable. An earnest effort, Crisis Hotline has its intentions in the right place.