Black Cab

Black Cabis the new short film from director and writer James Arden that explores a near future dystopian world in a very grounded realist setting. It follows Harry (Jay Simpson), a black cab driver, as he struggles to find business in a world of autonomous taxis.

The film is set in February 2027, mere months away as of writing this, and it’s a testament to Arden’s writing that this world feels incredibly familiar while incorporating elements of a futuristic society. People appear to be obsessed by autonomous taxis called Ridars which have just been legalised and the number of black cab drivers are dwindling. This feels like a clear comparison to the rise in Uber/Waymo and the tensions that have risen from this particularly with black cab drivers in London.

Harry is very much the core of this film and Simpson (a familiar face from Black Mirror, Chernobyl, etc.) gives a very strong performance in the lead. The film balances Harry’s work life with his family life and Arden illustrates how the rise of Ridars and loss of work is impacting his relationship with his own family. Emma (Gemma Dyllen), Harry’s wife, is a strong character that represents Harry’s family life as she raises their troublesome son and looks to work herself. The division and fracturing of their relationship throughout the film is shown through the distance of facetiming and Harry and Emma not sharing any screentime together.

Arden has spent over two years carefully researching and developing this film which can be seen through the setting of these Ridars and the feel of the black cab environment. It does at times feel like it falls into cliches with Harry as a cab driver but it feels very real. The smaller characters, however, all feel incredibly one dimensional and are simply there to show how big of an impact Ridar is having and to fuel Harry’s stresses and impending breakdown. While a short film naturally doesn’t have the time to explore these characters as much as a feature length film does, it would have been nice to see a few more instances of depth to these characters. This, for example, is done very well with the café scene where the other black cab drivers are talking with Harry and the chef.

Indeed, as the film progresses, it’s clear that Black Cab isn’t just concerned with the anxieties surrounding Harry’s job future but rather it analyses Harry’s character through family dynamics. This is a man that is consumed with pride to the point that it reaches a breaking point with his family and Harry is unable to see beyond the feud he has with Ridar. The fact that Harry and Emma do not share any screen time, is evidence of this.

Black Cab feels incredibly relevant to today. Not only with the conversation surrounding Uber and autonomous taxis but also with the rise of AI. It’s a topic that has defined the past couple of years and Arden weighs in on this with a human centred film that highlights the pressures and stresses this new world can cause. The film ends in rather a bleak way but it serves as a warning to where our world can be heading and the importance to avoid it.