Holding
2018 · 9m · USA
Directed by Jesse D. Turk, Jon Zucker
Genres: dark comedy, drama
Tones: darkly comic, humorous, tender
A man calls a suicide hotline and gets put on hold, only to discover his neighbor across the hall is on hold for the same line. Together they confront his ex-girlfriend in an oddly cathartic, darkly comic act of mutual rescue.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Everyone else sees a suicide hotline premise and runs away; these directors saw it and thought *buddy comedy*, which is either career suicide or genius — and it actually lands because the central absurdity (being on hold during your darkest moment) is too perfectly grotesque to resist.
The film's restraint—its willingness to let the hold music and dead air do tonal work, to situate vulnerability within a genre framework that typically demands movement—shows deliberate craft awareness of how dark comedy functions as a formal problem.
The decision to intercut between two separate calls and have the realization dawn that they're neighbors—that spatial shift from isolation to proximity—is the entire architecture of the piece, and it's constructed with economical precision.
Reviews
Really fucking funny — the friendship between the main characters is adorable, I just wish it was longer.
So sweet, funny and warm — a darkly comic story that feels both uplifting and specific without being melodramatic.
Festivals
- Indie Street Film Festival 2018, Audience Award