Please Hold

Short well made look at a potential real situation in near future. Well made, told a lot in the short time given and reminded me of a situation i have been in where looked like proving my innocence was impossible, and would have been if i was not extremely lucky having a witness i did not know i had lol.

Futurama Season 3 Episode 11 "Insane in the Mainframe"

Fry is falsely arrested and detained in a Robot Insane Asylum where he has to battle with technology trying to get a hold of ANYONE who can help get him out.

This Short literally uses the exact premise with mateo/Fry going crazy trying to prove hes not supposed to be in this facility full of technology/robots

Its very black mirror... but... again... futurama did this exact thing 20 years ago.

5/10 its not a bad little short, just unoriginal.

I enjoyed this short movie mostly because I found it relatable. With the privatization of prisons, ran by for-profit corporations with no care for the individual, and with the automation of customer support, the story of a guy who is mistakenly imprisoned and can't get to talk to a human is not too far-fetched.

I would have given it 10 stars if not for some inane details, such as the guy falling asleep while calling the LAPD chief of police. The movie would not have suffered without that silly scene, the call would have cost as much just by being on hold.

The power and velocity with which Please Hold affected me was truly amazing. It triggered a near immediate empathetically emotional response. This short made me feel so anxious and twisted up that I'm still sitting here in a daze while writing this; thank goodness it was only 19 minutes, any more and I'm not sure I could've handled it.

There is little wonder Please Hold is being talked about for awards. Every aspect was excellent, save perhaps the "soft" ending. A thoughtful comment on the present state and trajectory of our prison/justice system, Please Hold is a dystopian postmodern day societal horror story worth viewing. Viewers should be advised to watch at their own risk.

Postscript (since we're on the topic) - It's time to END for profit prisons. One would think this is an obvious error for a modern civilization to stumble into; But here we are, building one after another. For profit prisons can only make money by keeping people locked up. The more prisoners, the more tax dollars that are allocated to that prison. In order to stay "in the black", a for profit prison must continuously stay plus 3/4 full. Minor infractions become months to years tacked on to an inmate's time. Call your government representatives and tell them where you'd prefer your tax dollars be spent. It would be better to spend our tax revenue on just about anything else other than attempting to change Please Hold from fiction to reality.

First of i would like to say how happy I was so see a indi short film on HBOMAX. Not something I expected at all but after watching it I understand why they would put it on there. What an amazing short film! A simple idea executed very well in the time it had.

I don't want to give anything away because if you have HBOMAX it's only about 20 minutes long so definitely worth your time. But long story short it is a sci-fi in the style of black mirror about a possible Dystopian future.

When my wife and I both agree on a random movie like this I'm really glad I trust my gut on the description and put it on. Also thank you to the HBOMAX recommendation section because that's how I found it!