Sundance Film Festival 2026: ‘Joybubbles’ Movie Review
Joybubbles is quite a sincere opening for our Sundance Film Festival 2026 review coverage. Similar to the documentary The Remarkable Life of Ibelin, this documentary explores the challenges of a man living with a disability as he seeks ways to connect. For Ibelin, it was through the fantastic gaming landscape of World of Warcraft. For Joe Engressia (also known as Joybubbles), it was through vulnerabilities in telephone networks that he mimicked touch-tone sounds to make free long-distance phone calls.
Unlike Ibelin, Joe Engressia‘s life should be a lesson for the abled community. Here was a brilliant man, full of joy, whimsy, and shockingly gifted, and the world was too shallow to utilize his potential.
The documentary, directed by Rachel J. Morrison, is an all-encompassing spotlight on Engressia’s life, from his upbringing to his rise to public prominence as a “phone phreak” to his final days as a lonely man trying to offer joy from a phone number in the yellow pages.
Rachel J. Morrison’s focus on isolation
The documentary itself uses a plethora of retro footage from different eras to convey a sense of the time period or provide context for Engressia’s audio. Besides a few interviews from news networks, it’s clear they were beholden to miscellaneous images and video, possibly because there were few video interviews with the beloved man.
The film has sprinkles of audio from family, friends, and acquaintances, however. One of the first voices to play through the visuals is a memory from Engressia’s sister, Toni Engressia. In her memory, she recounts a conversation she had with Engressia when they were children. She remarks on a time when Engressia found the crickets’ singing interesting. And after capturing one, he was curious about why it had stopped singing in the jar. Her response was, “When you bring them in the house, they don’t chirp.”
The moment passes quickly before the film shifts to Engressia’s fascination with phones. But as mundane as the cricket memory seems, it represents a larger theme in Engressia’s story. For most of his life, Engressia was the cricket stuck in a jar, unable to sing to his full potential.
The documentary then explores Engressia’s legacy and how he managed to duplicate the sounds of touchtones on a phone by simply whistling. The technique drew attention from a community known as “phone phreaks,” a rebellious group of phone hackers who felt like the telephone industry was too exploitative in their pricing. Additionally, it pushed the boundaries of the legal system, as Engressia made efforts to make free long-distance calls to places like Russia in hopes that a phone company might hire him.
The documentary excels at showcasing a man who tried to use outside-the-box methods to make a name for himself. And the tragedy of it all, despite his brilliance and tenacity, he was still treated like a victim. Businesses like Packard Bell would never give him a chance. Mostly because of the time period before ADA laws and discrimination laws were enforceable to welcome workers with disabilities. But the unfortunate truth is that most of what Engressia experienced persists as a problem across various industries.
Joybubbles is a wonderfully whimsical examination of barriers
The beautiful aspect of Morrison‘s documentary is how whimsical it feels despite the depiction of Joe‘s barriers living as a blind man. The lack of employment or relationships gave Joe Engressia fascinating ways to find purpose.
For example, he created a phone listing at the very end of the phone book where strangers could call and listen to him share delightful musings about life on a number labeled as the Zzzzyzzerrific Funline. It’s in these moments that the documentary began to have a sincerity on the same frequency as Mr. Rogers. And as it unfolds, we learn that Engressia was a fan of the show.
Morrison‘s documentary also explores Engressia’s Peter Pan mentality and the childhood trauma that gave rise to his childlike wonder. It’s a beautiful examination of a complex human being who deserved so much more in his lifetime.
It’s a shame that we rarely witness stories like these as narrative features. But it’s inspiring to see more documentaries each year that spotlight the isolation one can feel as a person with limited ability.
Overall, Joybubbles is a wonderful documentary about a delightful human being who craved joy and connection. It is stories like Engressia’s that we typically focus on in disability-related films or topics at Sundance, because of beautiful human stories like this.
Also check out Sundance Film Festival 2026: Most Anticipated Films to Watch
