A Man And His Inner Turmoil

 

Thanks to Sophomore Academics for recommending this movie, which is how I heard about it a few days ago.

This movie is about a man and his inner turmoil. 
This was what I thought as I watched, with fascination, the 2002 movie The Phone Booth and applauded the director as every motion of every actor with face time delivered value to this psychological thriller. I also thought about the 2021 movie, The Tragedy of Macbeth, which, like the phone booth, was contained within a rigid space under the scrutiny of onlookers.
In the former, the dialogue and the action was on a street in New York City and mostly in and around a glass sided phone booth. In the Macbeth movie, the film was shot in black and white mostly within an austere castle. I enjoyed both movies for the dialogue, action and cinematographic values of photography, audio and editing. 
The Phone Booth seemed to have done well at the box office but was not enamored by critics. I think it was because the story criticizes the purveyors of entertainment products such as publicists, public relations and press workers. It is also forcing the reader to concede that there are forces of good and forces of evil in everyday lives, not something only in the realm of super heroes or villains from history or as defined by contemporary news.
The movie starts with the all-seeing eye coming down into the streets of Manhattan to the music of a gospel song, and this is the setting for the voice of judgement, who calls the protagonist out for his sins in a glass phone booth on a street.
The declamatory speech happens 3/4 into full time:    "I never did anything for anybody who could not do something for meI string along an eager kid with promises that I will pay him money. I only keep him around because he looks up to me. Adam, if you are watching, don't be a publicist, you are too good for it.I lie in person and on the phone. I lie to my friends, I lie to newspapers and magazines who sell my lies to more and more people. I am just a part of a big cycle of lies. I feel like the president.I wear this Italian shit because beneath I still feel like the Bronx. I think I need these clothes and this watch.My $2,000 watch is a fake and so am I.I bring death to the things I should have valued most. I value this shit.I take off my wedding ring to call Pam.Pam that's Kelly; Kelly, that's Pam.I never told her I was married, and if I did she would have told me to go home.Kelly, I am looking at you now, but I am ashamed of myself.I work so hard on this image and Stu Shep is an asshole that refers to himself in the third person can only prove that I should be alone.I am dressing up as something that I am not for so long, I am so afraid that you will not like what is underneath. But here I am, this flesh and blood and weakness and I love you so much.I take off this ring only because it reminds me of how I failed you.I don't want to give you up, I want to make things better but it may not be my choice anymore.You deserve better."
This show has been fatalistically labelled moralistic. According to the Bing, it won the Golden Trailer Award for Best Thriller in 2003 and Wikipedia says that it earned $97 million from a budget of $13 million.END

Books written by Jamaicans which include as the central themeMan and his inner turmoilTurn Back BlowSong for MumuAugust TownA Brief History of Seven KillingsVibration from Palampalam