Up until about a month ago, it looked like Eric Swalwell would be the next Governor of California. He’d served in the House of Representatives since 2012, and during each of his election cycles, he handily defeated every Republican challenger. Swalwell announced a Presidential run in 2019. He withdrew later, as his polling never broke one percent. My guess is, it didn’t matter too much to him. There would be other opportunities.

Only there weren’t. He was, initially, anyway, the odds-on favorite to succeed Governor Gavin Newsom. Then, the dam broke, as reports emerged that Swalwell had cheated on his wife, that he had sexually harassed staffers, that he had repeatedly sexually assaulted a former staffer. Swalwell tried to fight the tsunami of allegations. He called them “lies,” and his campaign threatened to sue his accuser. But a force asserted itself, whether it was morality or the law of political gravity, and Swalwell withdrew from California’s gubernatorial race on April 12 of this year, then resigned from Congress on April 14.

There’s nothing amazing about a politician who’s a liar,* a crook, or who can’t keep his dick in his pants. The amazing part in Swalwell’s case is how fast his political end came, and how quickly his reputation was lit on fire. A huge reason for the speed of his downfall was due to an internet that’s able to ping-ping both information and misinformation at lightspeed. That kind of power can be dangerous, as we see in the new thriller PH-1.

We’re introduced to Illinois Senator Payton Burnham (Mark Kassen), in the beginning of what appears to be an awesome day. His pet political cause is water safety, and after a successful event the night before, Payton basks in the praise from social media. Odds are he dreams of a career beyond the Senate, and a position or more power, influence, and attention. Considering the fabulously swanky penthouse he lives in, he seems to be halfway there.

As Payton preps for his day off, really more of a half day off, he chats with his aide Becca (Dina Shihabi). She nudges him to make another media appearance in order to burnish his environmental credentials. He also, very briefly, sees his wife Catherine (Rebecca Amzallag) and his cute-as-a-button children. Do they have a strong marriage? In the political sense, yes. In the normal people sense, I kind of doubt it.

After they leave, Payton figures he’ll have the penthouse to himself to luxuriate in quiet time. He won’t, due to an unexpected phone call. The voice on the other end identifies himself as Buddy, and as it turns out, he is not Payton’s buddy. He begins a social media campaign dedicated to annihilating Payton’s life, and it starts with leaked photos of Payton and Becca that insinuate an affair.

It gets worse. Buddy also has control over the cameras, phone lines, and internet connections within the penthouse, not to mention the computerized doors and gates. He demands accountability from Payton, a reckoning. But is Buddy really a helpful concierge (Sarah Adina), a grieving father (Abubakar Salim), a traumatized college buddy (Daniel Brochu), or someone else? And what has Payton done to receive Buddy’s ire?

For the most part, I had a ball with PH-1. It’s a solid example of one of my favorite sub-genres, the “The guy on the phone is ruining my life” thriller.** Mark Kassen also directed, and he makes the most of limited locations and an eighty-five minute runtime. Wisely, Kassen utilizes social media posts and clips from cable TV host Monica Hall (Vinessa Shaw) as a means of worldbuilding, and that shorthand efficiently shows us Payton’s world. The pacing is fleet as we watch Payton try to outthink his adversary. Speed is necessary in a film like this, because if we stop to think, “Wait, how is Buddy able to anticipate all of Payton’s moves, and hack into everything inside the penthouse,” the cinematic house of cards starts to fall apart.

Screenwriters Kassen and Cheryl Guerriero anticipated that concept.*** Like many a “The guy on the phone is ruining my life” thriller, the vast majority of the fun lies in acts one and two. This script is no different, and I had a blast watching Payton twist in the wind. Those first two acts are fiendishly inventive, and the script shows us the setup of Buddy’s plan, the payoff as the plan kicks in, and Payton’s paranoia as he tries to work out who’s really on his side. Often, when a movie like this reaches the denouement, the endgame is somewhat unsatisfying. This script is no different, and when I realized who was involved and why, I said out loud, “Oh. All right, then.” I have a theory that when we watch thrillers like this, we start to develop our own theories. That means the real answers need to be as inventive as what we came up with, if not moreso. It’s an unfairly high bar to hold a script to, and it’s not right to say, “I’m dinging this script points because it can’t live up to the nonsense in my head.”

The other effective weapon utilized in a “The guy on the phone is ruining my life” thriller is the cast, particularly the lead. We either a) want them to be sympathetic so we can thrill to see how they’ll get out of this mess, or b) be kind of a scumbag so we enjoy their torment. Look…I’ve never met Mark Kassen, and I assume he’s a nice guy. As Payton, he does excellent work playing a rat bastard with surface-level likability.**** Watch Kassen’s performance, and how every time he interacts with another person, he turns on the “charm” and calculates how far to turn it up. Yet it’s a sophisticated performance, since he’s playing someone who has used that skill set to get to the Senate. Payton isn’t necessarily one hundred percent a bad guy, yet we see he’s made a number of decisions and trade-offs that chipped away at his morality. As for the person playing Buddy, I’ll say I enjoyed their icy condescension and whip-smart intelligence through about eighty-five percent of the film. When the denouement is kicking in, Buddy makes a choice that feels a little off. It’s a pity since the performance of an overcompensating psycho was so much fun up to that point.

PH-1 is a smart and mostly effective thriller. More than that, it’s a thriller with something to say about the Venn diagram of politics, media, and the internet. If you’re someone interested in a tight and ambitious political thriller, I think you’ll enjoy yourself. If you’re Eric Swalwell, however, you probably want to sit this one out.

*Not for nothing, but there’s talk in England about making it illegal for politicians to lie. It’s true!

**Phone Booth and Grand Piano are other examples of this sub-genre.

***Amusingly, there’s a fun setpiece with Payton and a literal house of cards.

****The irony is that, along with Chris Evans (yes, that Chris Evans), Kassan runs the website A Starting Point. It exists to help create a more informed electorate, and you can learn more about them here.

Tim Brennan Movie Critic

Tim has been alarmingly enthusiastic about movies ever since childhood. He grew up in Boulder and, foolishly, left Colorado to study Communications in Washington State. Making matters worse, he moved to Connecticut after meeting his too-good-for-him wife. Drawn by the Rockies and a mild climate, he triumphantly returned and settled down back in Boulder County. He's written numerous screenplays, loves hiking, and embarrassed himself in front of Samuel L. Jackson. True story.