‘Listen Carefully’ Review
Stars: Ryan Barton-Grimley, Simone Barton-Grimley, Ari Schneider, Richard Gayler | Written and Directed by Ryan Barton-Grimley
Listen Carefully, is very much Ryan Barton-Grimley’s (Hawk and Rev: Vampire Slayers, Elijah’s Ashes) baby. He not only wrote, directed and starred in it, he also did some of the editing and cinematography. The story itself has its roots in his own anxiety after his daughter was born while he was shooting The Truth. The tension and uncertainty that brought on would become the nightmare that inspired the film’s script.
The film begins with a quote from T.S. Eliot: “What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.” These words flash on the screen in flickering 8-bit digital letters, immediately setting a tone of disorientation and unease. This leads into a bizarre chase sequence, where the protagonist, Andy (Barton-Grimley), is pursued by hooded figures wearing baby masks.
The chase is intense and chaotic, but it’s soon revealed to be a dream, a manifestation of Andy’s state of mind as he grapples with the exhaustion and stress of caring for his newborn daughter. It’s that exhaustion which caused Andy to fall asleep at his desk. And it’s not going to get better soon as he has to watch his daughter Abby alone while his wife, Allie, played by Barton-Grimley’s real-life wife, Simone Barton-Grimley, is out for the night.
But what should be a quiet, if not restful, evening alone with his daughter quickly turns into a nightmare when Abby and her baby monitor are kidnapped. The kidnapper, voiced by Ari Schneider (Repatriation, Gloria Bell), knows about a scam Andy has been running at the bank where he works. The kidnapper demands that Andy come up with a substantial sum of money in the next few hours if he wants to see his daughter again.
As the night unfolds, Andy becomes embroiled in a series of increasingly bizarre and stressful situations. He encounters a suspicious janitor (Richard Gayler, Among Thieves, Life in the Fast Lane), a potentially corrupt cop (also played by Schneider), and the increasingly drunken phone calls from his wife add to the tension. As things pile up, Andy’s mental state begins to unravel and the film keeps the audience guessing what is real, and what is merely a product of Andy’s increasingly tenuous grip on reality.
What sets Listen Carefully apart from the many other films to use variations on this theme is the way the story plays out. Right from the first scenes of Andy communicating with the kidnapper via an owl-shaped baby monitor, it’s obvious this won’t be a straightforward thriller. And it isn’t, with Barton-Grimley going for an absurdist feel that invites comparisons to Martin Scorsese’s After Hours or something David Lynch might have thought up.
One of the film’s standout elements is its cinematography by Sean Ayers (The Trouble with Edgar Lynch, Chaser) and Barton-Grimley himself. The film shifts seamlessly between the strange reality that Andy navigates and his increasingly distorted perceptions. This sense of unease is heightened by the tightly edited sequences, courtesy of Matt Latham (Itsy Bitsy, Victor Crowley) and, once again, Barton-Grimley.
While the film does an excellent job of straddling the line between what is real and what might be a product of Andy’s mind, it does go a bit overboard in the final act, pushing the boundaries a little too far, to the point where the constant switching between perceived reality and hallucination becomes annoying. While this was probably intentional, meant to show Andy on the brink of collapse, it would have been better pared back a bit.
Overall, Listen Carefully is an interesting slice of strangeness It offers a solid blend of suspense and dark humour, delivered through a lens that is both disorienting and unreliable. It doesn’t always provide answers or a neat resolution, but that’s part of what makes it so compelling. It leaves the viewer with a lingering sense of unease, questioning what is real and what is imagined. If you’re up for something a little different, this is one film that deserves your attention.
***½ 3.5/5
Listen Carefully is available now on digital platforms, including Apple TV, Tubi, and Prime Video.
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