This is the next of several film short reviews from this year’s HollyShorts Film Festival (13-23 Aug).
Black Cab (James Arden, 2026)
Harry (Jay Simpson) is a black cab driver who never seems to get a fare. In a setting not that far in the future, driverless taxis have spread across the capital – cheap, impersonal, safe.
At home, wife Emma (Gemma Dyllen) and young son are just surviving on what little take-home pay is coming in. She’s about to change that – but will Harry come through for the family when he needs to.
Black Cab is a cautionary tale about the rise of technology and AI in a still recognisable world – Harry stops off at one of the few remaining green wooden huts who serve tea and food to drivers.
As Harry drives the streets, trying to reel in the elusive large fare that will make him swallow his pride and face his responsibilities, he gets more desperate and more detached from reality.
Dyllen’s Emma is rather generic in character, as we have seen the wife and mother worn out with worry many times before. Simpson’s Harry, though, is believable as the tough man who doesn’t get that his time has passed and so has his livelihood.
A little tragedy of changing Britain, in miniature.
Black Cab is part of this month’s HollyShorts Film Festival.