Like all independent filmmakers, Matthew Aaron wears many hats on his third feature, Landline—not the least of which is a baseball cap representing his beloved Chicago Cubs. It takes singular vision and ungodly determination to get a movie off the ground, so I don’t blame Aaron for swinging for the fences as writer, director, producer, editor, and star. But the unfocused Landline loses sight of its premise early on. Following a sex-video scandal, ad executive Ted Gout (Aaron) strives to rid himself of modern technology. There are side-plots aplenty: one, a misunderstanding about Ted’s husband’s relationship with a childhood friend; one, a babysitting misadventure involving pot; still another pitting Ted against a social-media-savvy coworker for the all-important Cubs account. Any of these could be a movie. The effect of stuffing them all into one film is akin to reading an online article in which every third word is a hyperlink.
Check out Kicking the Seat Podcast episodes 209 and 211 for our double-header Landline interviews with Matthew Aaron and co-star Jim O'Heir!