"Please Hold" is an American English-language live action short film from 2022 and this one is nominated for an Oscar at the upcoming Academy Awards. I saw this one tonight just like all the other nominees and while I liked it and think it is far from being the worst entry, I still think it is maybe the least likely winner. Nonetheless, a thumbs-up to KD Davila as this was a really decent way to launch her filmmaking career. As a director I mean. I know she has worked in other positions before. Lead actor is Erick Lopez and some maybe know him from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. I am not one of those, but I think he did fine here overall. There are other actors, but he is at the center of it all from beginning to end, so close to a one-man show, even if, in general, this is not much of an actors movie. It is much more about the futuristic setting and the absurdity of it all. You will feel sorry for the protagonist, but you will also smile here and there because it is so strange some of it. Maybe also smile because you are happy you are not in his hopeless position. There is no reason in this film. Drones are in control and the main character is arrested at the beginning of the film. He completely relies on the explanation that it was a mistake, an error and he did nothing wrong. We are led to believe him, but of course cannot say for sure as we do not know about anything that happened before the film begins.
The vast majority of the film is us watching him in his cell, how he deals with a computer there and struggles with finding a lawyer and pleading guilty or innocent. The futuristic commercials about how he can have a much better, much more comfortable cell if he is able to pay 75 bucks or more per day were highly surreal. I personally thought this film was longer than 19 minutes, it felt longer, maybe because there was constantly something happening and when the protagonist sleeps, it's hours for him, but seconds for us. We feel with him and hope that justice is served. Imagine the idea of him being approximately 90% guilty and that being enough to put him in jail. I must say what I liked the least maybe about the film was the ending, how he then gets released out of nowhere and there is a reference to companies that boost their reputation by letting everybody know they employ former convicts. The lawyer was also a bit of a letdown. The maybe for me funniest and memorable moment was when screamed out YES in delight and the computer mistook it as a response to its previous question. Hands on my head there. I also kinda felt that maybe this film was closely connected to actual circumstances in the past, maybe the situation of a man who was really imprisoned despite being innocent and they used quotes from him from interrogations or so, but I saw no such explanation eventually. This is number three on my list of the Oscar nominees in the live action short category. Two were better, two were worse. I give it a thumbs-up and suggest you watch it. Also surprised that I am the first reviewer.
The vast majority of the film is us watching him in his cell, how he deals with a computer there and struggles with finding a lawyer and pleading guilty or innocent. The futuristic commercials about how he can have a much better, much more comfortable cell if he is able to pay 75 bucks or more per day were highly surreal. I personally thought this film was longer than 19 minutes, it felt longer, maybe because there was constantly something happening and when the protagonist sleeps, it's hours for him, but seconds for us. We feel with him and hope that justice is served. Imagine the idea of him being approximately 90% guilty and that being enough to put him in jail. I must say what I liked the least maybe about the film was the ending, how he then gets released out of nowhere and there is a reference to companies that boost their reputation by letting everybody know they employ former convicts. The lawyer was also a bit of a letdown. The maybe for me funniest and memorable moment was when screamed out YES in delight and the computer mistook it as a response to its previous question. Hands on my head there. I also kinda felt that maybe this film was closely connected to actual circumstances in the past, maybe the situation of a man who was really imprisoned despite being innocent and they used quotes from him from interrogations or so, but I saw no such explanation eventually. This is number three on my list of the Oscar nominees in the live action short category. Two were better, two were worse. I give it a thumbs-up and suggest you watch it. Also surprised that I am the first reviewer.