Help Point
2013 · 13m · UK
Directed by Andrew Margetson
Genres: comedy, dark comedy, romance
Tones: darkly comic, humorous
A young man who has lost his car in a vast airport parking lot meets a beautiful woman stuck in the same predicament at the Help Point. His attempt to charm her takes an unexpected — and darkly funny — turn.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A rom-com setup that gets completely sandbagged by its own punchline — the kind of premise inversion that makes you retroactively resent the first five minutes in the best way. Everyone else saw a cute meet-cute; Felix saw a trap door.
Margetson executes the formal architecture of romantic comedy with evident control, then dismantles it with surgical precision; the film understands its own genre conventions well enough to weaponize them.
The whole thing hinges on a single tonal shift — one moment where the charm offensive flips to something else entirely — and Margetson commits to it without winking, which is the only way it lands.
Reviews
An amusing short film, with crumbs of romanticism, fine irony and a sort of lovely innocence.
A nice charming short film with two attractive leads and a fun concept — the final line is an absolute belter.
Festivals
- DC Shorts Film Festival 2015, Audience Award
- Breckenridge Film Festival 2014, Best Short Comedy