Help Review

Help is a 2022 feature film written and directed by Blake Ridder.

Help tells a story that once understood is ultimately simple but shown in an overly complex manner with characters that have depth but prove to be far too unlikable to feel invested in.

To its credit, this film has enough going for it despite boiling down to a single location to keep you watching all the way through. It knows when to move conversations, timeframes and even activities in such a manner that you won’t ever be bored during your viewing experience.

The problem really comes down to the way the characters develop. In distinct moments, we see how each of them is ultimately flawed. This is, on one hand, a great way to show dimensionality and depth, but what is sacrificed is likeability.

While watching there were several moments where one could easily not have any sympathy for a character simply because of how they act in a certain scene. This happens for all three of our main characters as well. So, by the end of the movie, you may be left with this hollow feeling as the credits roll.

The other issue is the way the narrative makes things a little overly complicated. Instead of each scene building off of the last, things jump around a little too much. Of course, there are flashbacks which are telegraphed visually well with outfit/coloration changes, but it feels a bit out of order from where these should actually be placed.

Add to that some changing motivations and less than stellar reasoning by our leads and what we have here is something not terrible but not entirely succinct either. If you like a solid drama film with some horror elements thrown in, there are better options out there, but for a weekend viewing, you could do a lot worse.

Help has some interesting ideas and powerful moments of character development throughout, but it just doesn’t all come together in a well balanced and meaningful way. Perhaps with some more likeable characters, the story beats would hit harder, but as it is now, things just fall a tad flat by the end.

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Cheers!

Daniel Hess

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