From Omeleto.
A man has an accident.
ARMSTRONG is used with permission from Dylan Hare. Learn more at https://instagram.com/dylanhare.
Sam Armstrong has just arrived in Sydney from the country in search of new adventures. Soon after arriving, he meets a charming woman singing in the subway, and they plan a date in Bondi later that day. He feels pretty good about his new life, but before the date can happen, he gets into a freak accident that lands him in the hospital with two broken arms.
Helpless but still optimistic about his date later, Sam is cared for by an extremely kind and solicitous nurse. But as Sam checks out, he realizes a shocking truth. Determined to make things right, Sam takes action, but discovers fate has other curveballs in store for him.
Directed and written by Dylan Hare, this short dramedy is about navigating the unexpected twists and turns in life. And much like Sam’s own life, this engaging but increasingly dark comic narrative itself swerves all over the place, taking the audience to wild and unexpected places and finding ironic, increasingly dark humor on the way.
The storytelling begins like a bright and dewy rom-com, with a fanciful opening animation of a man on a train set to a soaring acoustic pop song. Seguing into gleaming live-action, he gets off at a station, feeling optimistic and upbeat about life and has an encounter with a singer that rings with future promise. Viewers would think we’re headed into an engaging love story or a narrative about finding one’s place in a new world. But when Sam gets hit by a car and lands in the hospital, the film abruptly shifts registers into dark comedy.
This change in action and direction is not quite a change in tone, mostly because Sam — played with an understated amiability by actor-director Dylan Hare — always retains a sense of good faith and easygoing flow, still retaining his optimism and excitement for the adventures in life. After being cared for by a solicitous nurse, he’s still looking forward to his date with the subway singer. But when he realizes that all is not what it seems, it shakes him, and he sets out to confront what’s happened to him.
But again, fate has its way with Sam, leading ARMSTRONG to its final shift. This time, it’s in a lurid, shockingly sinister direction, and thankfully, we don’t have to see what comes next. All we can think is "Poor Sam!" And perhaps meditate, shudderingly, upon the randomness and darkness of life — which is sometimes nothing like the upward trajectory of challenge and growth we see in movies. Sometimes life deals us a difficult hand, and fate finds us whether we want it to or not, helpless and screaming at the absurdity of it all.
