Neil's Yard
2019 · 6m · UK
Directed by Matt Holt
Tones: darkly comic, humorous
A 50-year-old traditional builder, blindsided when his wife leaves and he's passed over for promotion, accidentally catcalls his own daughter on site. Confronted by the new female site manager, he pivots into an unexpected feminist speech and launches 'Born Again Builders,' a support group for reformed builders whose sincerity is decidedly suspect.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Neil's Yard pulls the rug out from under its own setup — just when you're braced for a redemption narrative, the film winks and asks whether sincerity even matters when the machinery of self-improvement is running. It's exactly the kind of premise that makes consensus critics uncomfortable, which means it's probably onto something.
Holt's script walks a formal tightrope between satire and character study, anchored by a performance that never tips into caricature even as the 'Born Again Builders' beat threatens to; the restraint in the editing and tone suggests a filmmaker aware of how easily this material could collapse into mere mockery.
The pivot from accidental catcall to that feminist speech — the exact moment the film betrays its own sincerity — lives entirely in the actor's face and the decision to play it straight rather than wink at the audience, which is what elevates this from sketch comedy into something genuinely unsettling on a budget.
Reviews
Winners of the 2019 Funny Women Comedy Shorts Award — writers Teresa Burns and Samantha Lyden discuss builders, the #MeToo movement and the making of Neil's Yard.
Festivals
- Funny Women Comedy Shorts Award 2019, Winner
- Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2019