Tag Archives: billiards films

Billiards Movies In Memoriam

Leave a reply

As we prepare to close out 2025, we must pause to remember the many billiards movies that we lost – not necessarily this year, but during the 12 years that I’ve been blogging. These unrealized films had inspiration and potential, even if they never came to fruition. 

Every year, aspiring filmmakers strive to bring their visions and stories to the screen. But, the cinematic highway is fraught with challenges, from securing funding to navigating logistics, from uniting craftspeople to cutting through legal red tape. While it’s true that an estimated 10,000 movies are now produced each year, there are too many gems that never get made and perhaps never stood a chance.

We raise our cue sticks to those who hoped to inspire and entertain and to their films that never were. 

Ride the 9

Ride the 9Of all the billiards movies I hoped would get produced, Blake West and Jordan Marder’s Ride the 9 was my favorite. Murmurs and titillations about the movie first started in 2011; by 2014, when I interviewed West and Marder, it seemed like the movie was around the corner. A well-produced teaser video that highlighted the gritty New Orleans set locations, jaw-dropping trick shots courtesy of Florian “Venom” Kohler, and a killer soundtrack, all furthered the excitement. Marder also assured us that while the film is “not about pool, pool is integral to the story…it’s the glue.” Sadly, the team could not secure the necessary funding, and by 2017 the tweets and Facebook posts were done. 

The Fisher Queens

Fisher QueensFormer WPBA touring professional Kim Shaw teamed up with television director Julie Edwards in an attempt to tell the story of Mandy Fisher, Allison Fisher and Kelly Fisher, three unrelated UK snooker champions. According to the marketing, this documentary film would “not only provide a historical record of the rise of women’s professional billiards but will also provide an insight into the minds of three women who have shaped and dominated a sport traditionally viewed as predominantly male.” Unfortunately, an unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign sealed the film’s fate, and on May 1, 2015, it was announced on Facebook the documentary would not get made.

From Hustler to Champion

Seven months after the demise of The Fisher Queens, we also lost Philip Messina’s documentary-to-be, From Hustler to Champion, which promised to profile 20 of the best past and present pool players in the industry. Those “champions” included Shane Van Boening, Earl Strickland, Ewa Laurance, Efren Reyes, Allison Fisher, Karen Corr, and Johnny Archer, to name just a handful. The film would tell the “untold story of the extraordinary men and women who have transcended every obstacle to become legends.” Audiences would “experience these astonishing individuals—artists, wizards, road warriors, clinicians, entertainers and more—whose passion sets them on a path unlike any other in the sports world.” The quest to raise $55,000 on Kickstarter netted just 27% of their goal, though their concept video for the documentary is still available on their funding page.

Bred in Manila

Bred in ManilaOriginally from New York, and now living in the Philippines, Phil Giordano began working on the script for Bred in Manila (originally titled Supot) in 2016.  For the next three years, he did “countless hours of research, location scouting, interviews, late night anecdote-filled drinking sessions, script revisions, pitches, meetings, begging, crying, cheering, and overall filmmaking heartache” to tell the story of a female pool player who is trying to escape the world of illegal gambling in back alley pool halls. Years later, in 2022, I stumbled across an online poster for the film and reached out to Giordano. He shared that the film was “his biggest passion project,” but that it lost its funding and he hadn’t been able to find alternative financing. This tale however may have a happy ending. While I cannot yet confirm, Giordano’s current movie, Bilyarista, sounds like it may be a retitled Bred in Manila. The movie is about a girl living in the slums of Manila who “dreams of becoming a billiards World Champion, but when her father is killed, she is manipulated by Itoy, her hustler uncle, into playing in dangerous underground gambling matches in back-alley pool halls.”  

The Rematch

Rematch TheHaving released the piss-poor snooker film Perfect Break in 2020, director Len Evans embarked on a follow-up entitled The Rematch, with appearances by snooker household names Jimmy White and John Virgo. At one point, the movie had a poster, website, and fundraising campaign; however, all evidence of the film is now gone, and Evans’ profile on IMDB is equally devoid of mention of this former pet project.

Billiards Boy vs Dr. Pool

With its frivolous title and its story about an aspiring pool player named Billiards Boy who attempts to take down the legendary Dr Pool, this short film seemed intent on injecting some playfulness into the billiards film genre.  But, in 2020, the film’s co-producer, Jake Hourd, emailed me, explaining it was “a university project, and the writer/director decided he wasn’t going to finish it. He just wasn’t pleased with the outcome of the script and the footage so he scrapped it.” 

Billiardo

BilliardoNot to be confused with the identically-named Palestinian film Billiardo from 2016, the 2017 almost-film Billiardo from director Gabe Rodriguez was intended to be the story of a poor busboy who plays a fateful game of pool that may change his life. But, in 2020, I tracked down the writer/actor Ahmet Devran Dayanc, who cryptically shared with me, “the movie couldn’t be completed because of the director’s action.” 

Manitoba Sharks

When I wrote about Amanda Kindzierski in 2016 about her forthcoming documentary, Manitoba Sharks, it was hard not to get inspired. With $20,000 of funding from a pitch contest she had won, Kindzierski was committed to telling the “story of pool in Manitoba through the eyes of Aboriginal proprietors and players who are among the best in the world.” Manitoba Sharks was in post-production at the time of our conversation, so it’s sad the film apparently never found a distributor. Fortunately, as evidenced by her long list of projects on her website, Kindzierski has remained busy.

Potting Black

Potting BlackThe Fisher Queens was not only the film influenced by Mandy Fisher, an English former professional snooker player and a World Women’s Snooker Championship winner in 1984. A trio of third year filmmaking students at UWE Bristol also leaned into her story when they attempted to make Potting Black, a short film set in 1976 Britain about Pauline, a female snooker player in a game dominated by men. The director Marley Hamilton wrote, “This story is rich with historical influences and will take the audience on an emotional journey as they see Pauline stand up for herself and make a difference just as Mandy Fisher did.” While the film’s Crowdfunder page indicates it was successful in its fundraising efforts, all traces and mentions of the film disappeared from social media after early 2020. 

Don’t Keep Us Waiting: A List of Billiards Movies In Production

Leave a reply

Last Thursday, the news broke on British media outlets that a new movie on snooker superstar Jimmy White is forthcoming. The details were scant, though the story revealed that actor Ray Winstone is confirmed to play the Whirlwind’s manager, presumably Harvey Lisberg. 

Jimmy White The One and OnlyWhile the hard-partying, hellraiser has been the subject of multiple documentaries (e.g., Jimmy White: Close to the Wind; Jimmy White: The One and Only) and has even appeared in a couple of billiards movies (i.e., Legend of the Dragon; Perfect Break), this unnamed film would be the first biopic featuring him.

Mr. White’s wild life, combined with the cinematic horsepower of Mr. Winstone, sounds too good to be true. But, the real question is whether the film will ever get made?

Arguably, there was similar excitement on this side of the ocean five years ago when Variety announced that the Lagralane Group and United Film House had secured rights to the manuscript detailing the life of billiard champion Cisero Murphy. But, there’s been nary a peep since that release.

As we wait for updates on the White and Murphy movies, it’s worth taking inventory of other up-and-coming billiards films. The films listed below are all currently in some amorphous state of production, whatever that means in practice. Some may never get made, such as the once ballyhooed Ride the 9; others may one day make the leap from green baize to silver screen. We can only hope.

Mr Doom

Mr Doom.v2After interviewing director Leif Johnson almost a year ago about his forthcoming English billiards dramedy Mr Doom, I’ve been waiting for signs this film would make it to the big screen. Good news! Next week, it’s showing at the Northampton Film House as part of their film festival. The movie “follows the exploits of two men: one a professional hustler and the other a professional f**k-up. Both living on the fringes of society, day to day, bar to bar, hustle to hustle. Godlike with a pool cue in their hands but a total disaster in every other area of their lives. We follow this unlikely pair on a dangerous path of self-destruction, in a world of their own design, with the hope of making easy money.” My full interview with Mr. Johnson is available here. Update: this movie has since been released. See my review here.

8-Ball: A Pool Hall Western

A few years ago, I caught up with Brett Dameron and Kathleen Burke, the founders of BearWolf Creations, and the writers of the screenplay 8-Ball: A Pool Hall Western, which was a semi-finalist for the 2021 Academy Awards Nicholl Fellowship. They shared that their post-apocalyptic movie subverts the Western genre by putting all the components in a pool hall and having people live in tribal societies which are ruled by the best pool players. The film’s major event is a do-or-die three-day long pool tournament. I shared with them that it sounds like the Australian billiards movie Hard Knuckle, though hopefully much (much) better. Now they just need to raise “five to 10 million dollars” and cast a big star, like “Chris Evans or Jason Mamoa.” 

Life Behind the Eight Ball

Life Behind the Eight BallDrew Jordan and Nick Davaine approached their documentary by asking “what is pool?” to amateur and professional billiards players. Their goal was to discover a different side of pool and grow the sport’s community, rather than let the persona of the “grimy pool hustler” dictate the game’s image. Among the players promised to appear in Life Behind the Eight Ball are Danny Smith, Ronnie Wiseman, and Robb Saez. The producers created this teaser video, and then launched a campaign on Indiegogo that unfortunately didn’t generate much outside funds. While this film may be in permanent pool purgatory, Mr. Davaine shared with me via email (in 2020) that he does eventually expect filming to resume.

Girls Can’t Play Pool

With its provocative yo-bro title, Girls Can’t Play Pool promises to run headfirst into some familiar billiards stereotypes. Unfortunately, little is known about the film, other than its logline, “Two female pool hustlers team up to win more money than either could alone – but their growing friendship is tested when the lure of easy money is eclipsed by the dangers of the road.” Jonathan Teplitsky, the Australian director behind Churchill (2017) and The Railway Man (2013), appears to be the movie’s director, but as of now, he seems more focused on making a sequel to his 2023 crime comedy Gettin’ Square.

Extraction, USA

Extraction USAAccording to IMDB, Extraction USA is in post-production, having already shown at a few festivals and snagged some awards. So, fingers crossed that we’ll soon get to watch Mike Yonts’ movie about two women, a single mom bartender (Marni) and a drifter (Steph), who hatch schemes to hustle the town’s elite in billiards. But when the women uncover a drug ring with the potential for a much bigger score, they believe it presents a path to escape the town of Extraction. Update: this movie has since been released. See my review here.

 

Sapphire

Another newsbreak – this one in February, 2021. Barry Keoghan – aka The Riddler (The Batman) aka Oliver Quick (Saltburn) aka Dominic Kearney (his Oscar-nominated role from The Banshees of Inisherin) – would star in a forthcoming UK drama-thriller called Sapphire. According to the articles, “Mr. Keoghan will play a world-champion snooker player plagued by gambling addiction who escapes to China in search of a fresh start only to become indebted to illegal bookmakers and forced into a mortal dilemma; throw the biggest match of his life or save his soul.” Filming was supposed to start that fall, but three years later, there hasn’t even been an online whisper about the film. 

The Rematch

Rematch TheIn 2020, producer Len Evans released the snooker film Perfect Break, which I derided in my review as a “perfect bust.” Incredulously, it appears that Mr. Evans may be pursuing a sequel with The Rematch. Like Perfect Break, the film promises appearances by snooker household names Jimmy White and John Virgo, as well as the actor John Altman. However, as anyone knows who suffered through Perfect Break, Mr. White and Mr. Virgo had three minutes of stilted dialogue, literally done as talking heads. While it’s dubious The Rematch will live up to its tagline, “A comedy with balls,” I will give Mr. Evans credit: it takes balls to make a follow-up to Perfect Break. The website for this film has since been removed, which doesn’t bode well for its future.

The Ruby Lion

Dmitry Lesnevskiy Jr. is a film director and a 2020 NYU Tisch School of the Arts graduate. Having directed multiple short films and music videos, he is now crowdfunding to complete his forthcoming billiards short film, The Ruby Lion. The movie is “the story of not only the unresolved conflict between a father and son, but the purification of one’s soul in purgatory.” If that’s not confusing enough, try this, “Having never lost a game of pool in over twenty years, a retired world 9-Ball Champion, Reuben “Ruby Howard” finally faces a worthy opponent. But the eerily persistent challenger confronts the legends’ love for the game, resulting in the ultimate sacrifice.” Yeah, I dunno either. But, at least the teaser shows clips from billiards movies Stickmen and The Baron and the Kid.

Billiards: Year One 

Billiards 101After successfully adapting their stage play Billiards into the 2020 short film Billiards, Jon Cooper and Quan Malik Jones are now turning their attention to adapting their film into a television series called Billiards: Year One. It’s hard not to get on the Jon-and-Quan train, when you hear them wax philosophical about the sport. “Billiards can uplift and empower other creatives, particularly those we affectionately refer to as the underdogs…[Billiards] is a force that transcends boundaries, a catalyst for change, and a testament to the transformative power of storytelling.” 

 

Double Down South

2 Replies

“You come to shoot pool?”

“I didn’t come to adopt a puppy.”

That opening, sharp-tongued retort suggests viewers may be in for two hours of ratatat pool-playing. And that wouldn’t be entirely wrong. Double Down South, which premiered at the 2022 Newport Beach Film Festival, is very much a billiards film, full of bank shots, hotshots, cheap shots, and potshots. But, if you’re expecting eightball, nineball, straight pool, three-cushion billiards, sixball, goriziana, Russian pyramid, tenfold carom, or any of the other myriad forms of the sport which have populated the billiards film genre, then pencils out and take a seat: you’ve got a new billiards education coming. 

Double Down South movie posterWritten and directed by Tom Shulman, the Oscar-winning writer of Dead Poets Society, Double Down South takes place in the rarified world of keno billiards. Now, I’ve been writing about billiards and film since 2013, and for the record, I had never heard of the sport either. Keno billiards has a certain mythical folklore surrounding it. Even within diehard online billiards communities (e.g., AZBilliards), few have played it, some dismiss it (as largely a game of luck), and many have not heard of it. But, it’s most definitely real, and one requiring real skill. As someone once said, “If ya want to know how to turn a big stack of cash into a little stack of cash….start playing [keno billiards].”

The game is played on a pool table, with the two far corner pockets covered by a keno game board, consisting of rows of numbered holes. Players then trade shots, attempting to hit the billiards balls into corresponding or predetermined numbered pockets on the keno board. Rules are almost always local, but generally involve lots of betting and doubling of bets based on making the shots. 

Keno billiards likely began in the early 1900s, during a wave of billiards board games, with names such as Amos and Andy, Hatta Boy, Pigeon Pool, Roulo, Scotch Pool, Star, and Turf. Keno billiards was among the most popular, though today there are only a couple of manufacturers of the board, and you’d be hard pressed to locate a (legal) game.

Double Down South 21 500x300.jpgBut, if you wanted to find an illegal game circa 1998, travel to (the fictitious town of) Kingsville, Georgia, the “keno capital of the world,” and head to Nick’s, an antebellum, dilapidated plantation house that now acts as a pool hall and diner for many bearded, beer-bellied, bubbas.  

Into this Southern backwoods fraternity enters Diana (Lili Simmons), a bomber-jacket-and-beanie-cap wearing, belly-ring sporting stunner, whose drop-dead looks and slo-mo Southern drawl could raise Stonewall Jackson from his grave. Diana is the one who didn’t come to adopt a puppy, though it’s pretty obvious she didn’t randomly show up just to shoot pool, either. 

Double Down South 11Allegedly, she’s come to get good at keno. It’s a paper-thin story, but that doesn’t bother Nick (Kim Coates), the racist, misogynistic, proprietor, who’s only too glad to have such a hot piece of action as the main roadside attraction at his establishment. Indeed, Diana’s not two bites into her catfish sandwich, before Nick is propositioning her with a rednecked, blueballed, plan that’s all about making some green. In exchange for room, board, and teaching her the game of keno, Nick will promote Diana and stakehorse her for a percent of her winnings. It’s a harebrained proposal, all the more absurd given it’s based on watching her pocket only a few shots. With minimal deliberation, Diana accepts, setting in motion a dangerous and tense partnership.

So begins Diana’s tutelage, under the one working eye of good-natured Little Nick (Igby Rigney). In record time, she masters the game’s nuances and defeats a rogue’s gallery of high-stakes keno billiards bad boys, including Nick’s former show pony Douche, a lecherous “basement psycho” named Harvey Block, Tulsa, Rebel, and even Tony “Rooster” Rose. Along the way, she wins the warmth and admiration of Little Nick, the father Old Nick, the mansion matron Sheila, and all the local yokels, who are as impressed with her skills as they are mesmerized by her curves.

Double Down South posterBut, the real target is Beaumont DuBinion (Justin Marcel McManus), a Black keno champion, who allegedly once cheated Nick and paid with a beatdown and the loss of both kidneys. The hatred runs hot, and Nick wants nothing more than to beat Beaumont once more (and maybe for the South to rise again). 

Beneath the baize there’s a lot happening in this genre-bending Southern Gothic, Western, Sports drama thriller.  While the “surprise” ending is more predictable than a muggy Mississippi summer, Double Down South works primarily because of the intense characterizations and cat-and-mouse dynamics between the film’s two leads, Diana and Nick. 

Ms. Simmons, largely a TV actress known for recurring roles in Banshee and Ray Donovan, imbues Diana with mystery and feminine toughness, while also showing complexity and vulnerability, as her motives are continually questioned. Her precarious alliance with Nick, played with hotblooded, unpredictable volatility by Mr. Coates, keeps the tension high. Viewers who enjoy Mr. Coates as Tig Trager, the fearless motorcycle club sergeant at arms from Sons of Anarchy, will not be disappointed.

As for the keno billiards, credit likely goes to cinematographer Alan Claudillo, who ensures the game playing, with its dull-but-difficult shots, does not turn into a putt-putt snorefest, but rather maintains some level of dramatic tension.  It’s a challenging feat, and the lack of single continuous shots demonstrates how hard it is to film expert keno billiards, but ignoring any purist outcries, the sequences do not distract from the tempo.

Double Down South is having its live, digital premiere on February 24. To learn more about the movie, visit its website. A special thank you to Kim Dixon for providing me with advanced access to write this review.

Animated About Billiards Films (Part 2)

Leave a reply

Almost a year ago, I wrote about three short animated billiards films I had discovered:  New York Billiards, an evocative film that traces the path of a billiards ball as it crosses the New York skyline; Inglourious Billiards, a visually bold film that pits two pool opponents against one another to win a woman’s affection; and Fresh Grass, an unclassifiable film about unworldly beings who are resuscitated when a bar patron feeds them billiards balls.

Since that post, I’ve discovered three more billiards animated films – Detours, Scratch, and Killer Cueball – each thematically similar to some degree with one of the trinity members from my original post.

Detours

Similar to Thyra Thorn’s New York Billiards in which the peregrination of a billiards ball creates the dramatic narrative for a wordless film, Nico Bonomolo’s 2014 Italian short film follows the path of an eight-ball across geographies and time. Starting on a traditional pool table, the eight-ball travels through a window into a dog’s mouth, which brings it onto a ship, of which it rolls off into a fishing boat, where it is then ice-packed with fish, where it is then loaded onto a plane, which sadly crashes in a desert, where it is recovered by a local boy, who grows up with it and ultimately gives it to someone on a train, who loses it, so it can wend its way through the streets, only to eventually be recovered by a soldier.

If this sounds like a billiards version of Flat Stanley, you wouldn’t be totally off, though what makes Detours remarkable is the three-minute film is based on animating 900 different frames of hand-painted paintings by Mr. Bonomolo. The film is available to watch here.

Scratch

Much the way animator João Cardoletto spent three years creating Inglourious Billiards as part of a final project for a 2D course, student Sean Coleman spent 10 months in 2008 making his animated film Scratch as his senior thesis at the Southwest University of Visual Arts. Both movies feature two billiards players – one slender and wormish, the other short and ovoid – competing for a prize. And, both feature an array of trick shots. Notably, in Scratch, the egg-shaped adversary makes most of his shorts while jumping in the air, as he is too short to otherwise reach the table.

But, the primary difference between the films is the players’ raison d’être. Whereas in Inglourious Billiards, the bounty is the woman, in Scratch the prize is the ever-growing pot of money. Behind the clever and light-hearted animation is the greatest trope in billiards films: the hustle.  Too bad our Humpty Dumpty-shaped friend appears not to have watched such movies, as his early winnings are quickly reversed when his opponent morphs into a pool shark. Scratch is available to watch here.

Killer Cueball

Rounding out the trio is Paul Carty’s 2013 3D short film, Killer Cueball. Similar to Ida Greenberg’s Fresh Grass, Mr. Carty’s source material is based on the anthropomorphizing of billiards objects, specifically the cue ball and the one- through nine-balls.

Imagine a cue ball that has been “pushed, kicked and scratched, jumped, shot, even had cigarettes put out on him… you can only take so much.”  That life of abuse causes this particular spheroid to snap, transforming into an orange-mohawked cue ball, with an unfortunately Asian caricatured countenance.

Seeking revenge against his nonet of tormentors, he attacks each ball, saving the worst punishment for the 9-ball, which is chased into a Pac-Man maze. But, his ploy backfires when the maze portal leads to the chute of a coin-operated pool table and he is summarily rejected. Labeled “bad”, the cue ball plummets to a hellhole where a spherical-headed devil that plays guitar on a pitchforked cue stick oversees the Devil Ball Tournament (“if you’re here, you’ve already lost”).

But, before playing commences, the other balls, risking shape and life, daringly rescue our protagonist from an infernal fate. Past tensions are mended, and a stadium of solids and stripes welcomes back the cue ball with signs such as “We Forgive Cue” and “Cue-T-Pie.” Killer Cueball is available to watch here.

Billiards Short Films Around the World (Part 3)

Leave a reply

In this latest segment of my global billiards cinematic peregrination, I traveled almost 17,000 miles across four different continents to watch four short films. But, this viewing expedition, while it surfaced some original perspectives on, and applications of, billiards in film, left me largely unsatisfied, especially compared to some of my previous jaunts. Let the journey begin, starting in South America.

Sinucada

I was looking forward to watching Sinucada, a 2018 Brazilian film created by 20-year-old Rafael Stadniki while he was studying cinema and advertising at Brasilia University. The movie’s poster looked fresh, and I thought the movie might provide a short lesson on sinuca brasileira, a Brazilian version of snooker, much like other international billiards films have educated me on the sport’s local variations. Unfortunately, the poster proved to be the film’s sole distinction, and there was no billiards lesson to be learned.

Sinucada begins with an early black-and-white promotional film reel introducing viewers to the University of Brazil, “the gem of Brazilian education… [where] the Academic Centers provide intrinsic activities such as conversation for tongue exchange, recreational herbs workshops, and sports competitions.” The two freshman protagonists, Kevin and Rafael, are eager to join an Academic Center, considered the social meccas of campus.  Joining a Center, however, requires passing a test – specifically, defeating a senior in the Traditional Snooker Challenge.

It’s a promising set-up, but Sinucada spirals into stupidity once the Center doors open, the lame dialogue begins, and the snooker-playing commences. The Center looks like a middle school clubhouse, which may be appropriate given the acting.  And the snooker bounces between lifeless and cockamamie, depending on whether one of the players is imbued with some supernatural force that enables him to pot balls. Sinucada is available to watch on YouTube.

The Hustle

The least original, but probably the most enjoyable, of the quartet is the 2013 Australian short film The Hustle, by first-time writer and director Topher Field. The seven-minute comedy stars Nikolai Nikolaeff as Troy, a quintessential pool hustler. Breaking the fourth wall, Mr. Nikolaeff begins the film by introducing the audience to the concept of a hustler (i.e., someone who is not “just the best pool player” but someone who “knows how to pick their targets, how to suck them in, and how to beat them”).

He then articulates, and executes, each of the “rules” of hustling, starting with “Plan your attack,” followed by, “Make contact,” “Lose,” and “Escalate.” This paint-by-numbers approach to hustling is pretty desperate writing, and makes you wonder if Mr. Field assumes his audience was born under a rock.  Fortunately, The Hustle has a real twist (albeit an obvious one) that once revealed helps the audience realize they were not intended to be the real idiot of the film.  The Hustle is available to watch on Vimeo.

The Hustle

Pool hustling is probably the most vulgarized trope in billiards films, so no wonder I found another film also titled The Hustle. Made by the Chicago-based husband and wife team David Tarleton and Adria Dawn, this four-minute film from 2019 focuses entirely on a confrontation between a broken man and the pool hustler who allegedly ruined his life.

A man is out $250,000, his wife left him, his daughter is not speaking to him, and his daughter’s college money is depleted. As they circle the pool table that separates them, the hustler (hunter) admits to some wrongdoing, and then proposes to the despondent man (prey) that they “play for it.” Since the broken man is “excellent at whupping [the hustler’s] ass in pool,” this seems like a great opportunity to even the score.  Of course, the pool hustler’s smile at the end of the film portends a very different outcome.  The Hustle is available to watch on YouTube, but be warned, there is no actual billiards in this film.

Precision

Rounding out my film foursome is Precision, a very short 2010 Indian movie directed by Indranil Kashyap and shot entirely in black-and-white. Precision focuses on an underworld don who receives an unsolicited human trafficking deal from a rather anxious woman. Her inappropriate proposal and annoying mien so irritates the don and interrupts his private snooker game that he unflinchingly spears the woman in the mouth with his cue stick. Having muted (literally!) the woman’s proposal, the don’s lackey then finishes the ritual by shooting her dead.

The premise is gruesome and the action is unexpected, but it’s all undermined by a poor billiards set-up (i.e., sloppy rack, unconvincing break, bad shots) and an execution rendered ridiculous by the woman falling over dead before the gun is even fired. Precision is available to watch on YouTube.

 

Billiards Short Films Around the World (Part 1)

Leave a reply

I’ll be honest. As my comprehensive list of billiards movies, TV episodes and short films surpassed 250, I thought I had probably hit a ceiling.  But recently, late one evening, I had a head-slap, do’h! moment research idea that had not occurred to me in six years. Rather than searching IMDB by keyword (e.g., “billiards,” “8-ball”), I would search by plot summary.

Plot summary search results from IMDB.com

Wow. That one change shattered the roof, surfacing no less than 35 new entries. The majority of these new discoveries are billiards short films from around the world that were made in the last 15 years.  Talk about rolling double sixes!

Having unearthed so many new short films, I am going to devote several upcoming blog posts to reviewing trios of these local movies. Today’s threesome: Biljar (Croatia), Biljardkundgen (Sweden), and Penance (Canada).

Biljar

Purists may deride my decision to call Biljar a billiards film, but I think the 7-minute Croatian film is worthy of inclusion. Released in 2018 by writer/director Dina Cvek, the movie occurs in a nondescript bar.  Asking “are you open?,” a couple enters and proceed to order beers and play billiards. Though the bar is otherwise empty, the billiards scene injects levity, especially because it’s powered by the high-energy sounds and whimsical lyrics of “The Accident of 1993” by Austin, Texas rockers Poly Action.

But, when the bartender temporarily steps out, everything gets topsy-turvy. Playfulness is replaced with dread thanks to the sudden music shift to the heavy metal of Regular Gonzales. The couple mysteriously disappears and reappears, and the bartender winds up on the wrong side of a gun. The film concludes by the bartender seemingly waking up, only to have the same opening scene and inquiry repeat. (This motif about the fleetingness of time is reinforced by a question asked in the film, “Why is the rabbit always running in Alice in Wonderland?” As Lewis Carroll readers know, the White Rabbit represents the pressure of time and the fear of missing a deadline.)

The film is available to watch here. Billiards fans: please don’t lose sleep over the cringey 30-second billiards montage. Biljar is not intended to be about pool.

Biljardkundgen

Translating in Swedish to “The Billiards King,” this 12-minute film from 2011 is about a youth center worker whose talent for billiards does not live up to his boasts about the sport.  Handsome and muscular (but oddly sporting a good bit of armpit sweat), Matte fancies himself a billiards hotshot. He likes to quote the opening lines of The Color of Money, he has a poster of The Hustler over the pool table, and he is fixated on shaping his cue tip while he giving creepy glances at the underage girls who frequent the center.

Trying to impress a new girl, he promises to defeat Ali, who is currently on the table, so he can teach the girl how to play. After losing the first game, he demands a rematch on a technicality. He then loses the second game, which prompts him, temper rising, to wager 100 krona (about $107 USD) on a final match. This too he loses after botching a gimme-shot on the 8-ball.

Aside from the novel location (I haven’t discovered any other billiards films that use a youth center as the battle arena of choice), Biljardkundgen is pretty unmemorable, and the pool playing is terrible.  The movie is available to watch here with English subtitles.

Penance

Certainly, of these three films, Penance is the closest to a traditional billiards film.  Directed by Ivet Koleva, this 12-minute film, shot in entirety at the beautiful Top Shots Billiards in Alberta, Canada, is about two seemingly unrelated characters, Lydia and Jimmy, reconciling their history over a 9-ball race to 15. Penance is available to watch on FilmFreeway.

Lydia, a mysterious young woman with a mounting reputation for running tables, seems to know a lot about her opponent. “You’re the famous Jimmy O, pool hall owner, tournament player, money game player, pool ambassador.” Jimmy does not recognize her, but gets his first wind that they have a connection when he recognizes her pool cue as one he used to own. Unable to undermine her confidence, the tête-à-tête leads to a 9-ball competition with Jimmy’s pool hall as the grand prize. I won’t spoil the story, though it’s neither hard to predict the outcome of the match nor the relationship between Jimmy and Lydia.

Given the centrality of billiards to the movie, I was surprised to learn that Ms. Koleva is not a player herself. In an email interview, she explained to me that she likes to “go out of her comfort zone to portray various subjects” and that she was inspired by the “love and lifelong dedication to billiards” from some people she knew.

Penance has received a mixed reaction from the billiards community. Some veteran players have been quick to categorize it as another movie that gets the details wrong when it comes to billiards.  It’s clear from their bridges and ways they jump after shooting that the actors don’t know how to play pool. It’s ridiculous that Jimmy would constrict his mobility by wearing a heavy leather jacket or that he would make such a high wager against a complete unknown.

But others, and I would lump myself into this latter category, believe that the movie tried to get it right and succeeded, especially through Greg Waggoner’s beautiful cinematography, in showing a respect for the sport.  As Ms. Koleva told me:

I have tried to come up with new scenes, colors and shots so that Penance can have different elements to it. Some of the shots within the match scene were unique and had to be planned out with billiard players. The specific scene where the final ball hits the corner rather than going in took quite a few shots to get right, which is part of the reason why we framed the shot so tightly (that, and it turned out more impactful when the camera is so close).

Ultimately, I think Geoff Bradshaw at Bradshaw Billiard Service, said it best, “If you want a movie that is about pool, with perfect attention to every detail of the game, watch an instructional DVD. I believe that this short film was beautifully produced. Nice story, nice lighting, nice camera work, decent acting, and a gorgeous pool hall. [They] did a great job.”[1]

[1]      https://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=489623&page=2

Animated about Billiards Short Films

Leave a reply

Ralph Bakshi, the great American animator of movies such as Fritz the Cat and American Pop, said, “What’s most important in animation is the emotions and the ideas being portrayed. I’m a great believer of energy and emotion.”[1]

I think Mr. Baskshi would then be pleased with the three short animated billiards films I recently discovered – Fresh Green, Inglourious Billiards, and New York Billiards – as each bubbles with energy and emotion.

Fresh Green

It’s not just the green that is “fresh” in Ida Greenberg’s 4+ minute billiards stop-motion animation Fresh Green. The whole film is wonderfully fresh and original, and very consistent with Ms. Greenberg’s self-described visual style of “erring on the side of quirky…often humorous, dark, or strange.”

A student at Maryland Institute College of Art, Ms. Greenberg created Fresh Green as her senior thesis project.  Her original project idea had nothing to do with pool, but when that idea wasn’t working and with deadlines quickly approaching, she turned to billiards.  As she shared with me in an email interview, “My apartment building at the time had a pool table, so I would occasionally play by myself. I’m a complete novice when it comes to billiards, but I find playing to be very meditative and strategic. So the idea of billiards was bound to make its way into my work, and Fresh Green is that project.”

The film starts out simply with a lone patron playing pool. By accident, he unhinges a floor board, which reveals a wide-eyed, solid blue, human-like being laying supine beneath the floor. Initially shocked, the patron recognizes the being is the same color as the 2-ball, so he feeds him the ball. This sustenance energizes the being to emerge from the floor and exit the bar.

In the film’s eeriest moment, the patron then slowly looks to see what else is beneath the floor. He discovers an entire colony of similar beings, sardined together, as if hidden in a bunker, or quarantined, or locked away for future experimentation like something out of The X-Files. Each being matches the color and pattern of a different billiards ball. As they are literally fed their respective billiard balls, they each emerge and gaily leave free. But, when the patron starts a new game, they return (or are summoned?) to their original hermitage.

Fresh Grass took an estimated 2600 hours to complete, so the film was not finished until late 2018, after Ms. Greenberg had already graduated.  Since that time, it has shown at numerous festivals and garnered multiple awards. To watch the film, you must contact the director through her website.

Inglourious Billiards

Talk about a labor of love.  As part of a final project for a 2D animation course, Brazilian animator João Cardoletto spent three years creating his 4-minute film Inglourious Billiards, which was inspired by the classic Twilight Zone billiards episode, “A Game of Pool.”

Released in the United States in late-2016 at Animation Nights New York, the film focuses on a game of pool between two men that turns into a fierce battle to win the attention of a beautiful patron who has just arrived at the bar. Geniality and sportsmanship succumb to jealousy and rage as the two players demonstrate increasingly daring, imaginative and outlandish billiard shots to woo the woman.  Two of my favorites include pouring the woman’s martini on the ball and lighting it on fire to make a triple bank, and cracking open the 7-ball to release a bird that then hatches (!!) the 7-ball into the corner pocket.

While the notion of a pool game going wildly off the rails is not original to billiards animation (e.g., Dirty Pool; Kikioriki – “The Game Must Go On”), Mr. Cardoletto’s bold, lively visual style and exaggerated characters are highly enjoyable. A teaser for his film is available here, and additional information is on Mr. Cardoletto’s website.

New York Billiards

Released in Germany in 2013 and nominated for an award at the Regensburg Short Film Festival in 2014, New York Billiards is 3+ minutes of emotionally poignant and evocative billiards animation.  The movie is available to watch here.

Created by Thyra Thorn, a multimedia artist whose oeuvre extends into movies, crime novels, poems, and comics, New York Billiards traces the continuous path of a billiards ball as it is shot across the New York City skyline.  Set to intensely escalating music, the crude charcoal-drawn ball contrasts with the black-and-white photographed Manhattan architecture.

As ominous as the first half of the film is, the second half is far grimmer. An unidentified player, perhaps an investment shark or real estate tycoon, shoots the ball back in motion. The ball retraces its course, but this time unleashing destruction on the city, with fires, tidal waves, and electric storms flattening buildings and uprooting landmarks.

As the Empire State Building topples over, the final scene is the ball falling off the skyline’s precipice. With nothing left to raze, we hear someone nasally remark, “Oh no,” the only two words of the film. The diabolical game, played by faceless and untouchable overlords and gamemasters, has ended, at least for now.

[1]      Ralph Bakshi was also no stranger to billiards, as evidenced by this memorable scene from Fritz the Cat.