An argument can be made that 2023 was a great year for film.

The industry rebounded from the pandemic with domestic box office ticket sales surpassing $9 billion. A slew of A-list directors – Scorsese, Miyazaki, Mann, Fincher, (Ridley) Scott, Linklater, Gerwig – released new movies. And, of course, there was the Barbenheimer phenomenon, which not only suggested audiences can tolerate more than MCU blockbusters, but also that cinematic portmanteaus are going to be the new normal.

It was certainly a better-than-average year for billiards short films, with five notable entries from around the world releasing in 2023. While they’re not on the level of the genre’s more recent standard-bearers, such as Petrichor, 8, or Inglorious Billiards, they comprise an enjoyable 41 minutes of billiards film watching.

The Ballad of Rich and Champ

If Robert Rodriguez (Sin City; From Dusk till Dawn) was back in film school, he might have made a movie like The Ballad of Rich and Champ. Written and directed by Caleb Voyles, who completed his Film Production Master’s programs at Florida State University and FullSail University in 2022, Ballad is a homage to 1970s American Cinema, and perhaps, to Mr. Rodriguez, who had too much fun reminding audiences of 70s grindhouse films with his 2007 tribute Planet Terror.

In Ballad, Voyles plays loosely with saturated colors, wardrobes, funky music, a fake trailer (Pieta: A Meditation on Suffering), and plenty of cinema techniques that defined the low-budget, drive-in b-movie blessings that have resurfaced in popularity today thanks to Rodriguez and especially Quentin Tarantino.

The plot is generic, but that’s nothing new. A pair of hustlers – Rich and Champ – have a regular night at the billiards table turn deadly when an opponent makes clear this will be Champ’s last game. There’s a moderate amount of billiards playing – nothing memorable – but the film style and original soundtrack keep you smiling. The full billiards short film is available to watch here.

The Caligo Cuckoo

The Caligo Cuckoo may be missing Rod Serling’s famous opener, but there’s no mistaking the film’s deep admiration of The Twilight Zone. Director Kai Patterson shared, “I loved how each story [of The Twilight Zone would transport you to another dimension with endless possibilities, usually with some kind of sinister twist in the end. They felt like old ghost stories you’d tell your friends around a campfire, cautionary tales of sorts. The show made a huge impact on me at a very young age and I wanted to create a film that gave me the same feeling today.”

Patterson’s paean seemingly extends beyond The Twilight Zone to the famous 1961 episode “A Game of Pool,” in which Jack Klugman and Jonathan Winters played a game of billiards with life-altering consequences. While definitely not a remake (we’ll leave that to the 1985 “A Game of Pool” episode of the revised Twilight Zone), Cuckoo also pits two players against one another in the middle of the night in which “a quick game of pool can change your life.” 

Cuckoo is a well-crafted film. Only 15 minutes long, Patterson maximizes every minute to create mood and tension, as well as build to the climactic reveal. To capture all the nuance, it deserves more than one watch, and will probably have you thinking twice about the concept of “stepping into another man’s shoes.” The full billiards short film is available to watch here.

Smoking Dolphins

While the entirety of Smoking Dolphins is shot around a snooker table inside a rundown social club, the film has nothing to do with billiards. Nor is it about smoking dolphins, though most of the film is a buildup to the incredulous story of a pair of dolphins who are able to – almost – sneak a smoke in the midst of ignorant onlookers. It’s a preposterous tale, made all the more absurd by the ratatat storytelling from the film’s two oddball protagonists, who only reveal their ulterior motives at the end. 

As director Sean Lyons shares, Smoking Dolphins honors “the eccentric locals who, more often than not, chose to spend their time regaling customers with the same old stories, most of which were either embellished to the nth degree or completely fabricated.

”But, it’s also a sharp-barbed satire of Brexit and, in particular, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who Lyons criticizes for his daily lies and scandals. Lyons channeled his frustration in making the film. “I saw the parallels of the bullshit spewed by characters in the script and by those leading the country. A lot of advice you hear is to make a film about something you care about deeply…Seeing those parallels opened a door…to make a film and a subject I feel strongly about.” The full billiards short film is available to watch here.

Spiel Des Lebens (Game of Life)

Not all the 2023 billiards short films were good. German director Marcel Flock’s Spiel Des Lebens (Game of Life) is an apocalyptic bomb. The year is 2036. To relieve overcrowded prisons, convicts must face off against the guards in Ball 13 (Future Billiards) life-or-death matches. 

I’m a sucker for dystopian films, but like Hard Knuckle and The Day Lufberry Won It All, this one is painful to watch. Nobody – not the inmates, not the guards – knows how to shoot billiards! If someone used that over-the-middle-knuckle bridge against me, I’d probably want them eliminated, too. 

Granted, this is a “proof of concept” (as opposed to a complete short film), so it naturally feels a little disjointed. But, if it is intended to be a composition of scenes that best represent the concept, story, tone and themes of a potential feature film, the future looks pretty grim. You can watch the proof of concept here.

Tamatsuki’s Dream

At 60 minutes, the Japanese movie Tamatsuki’s Dream, directed by Keita Taguchi, sits in the cinematic purgatory between short and feature-length films, depending on whose chronometric definition is used. I was feeling generous.

I was unable to find this movie to watch, but was highly intrigued by both the film’s poster and its description: “Set in Japan during World War II, Kishino lives in Kumano’s mansion as a concubine, a landowner and munitions factory owner. Upon hearing that her younger brother has been killed in battle, she attempts to commit suicide with her lover. However, just as she is about to commit suicide, she meets a man named Asajiro, who resembles her younger brother. Asajiro, who suffers from tuberculosis, is exempt from military service and lives a secluded life. He runs a billiards parlor that he started with his wife, who also died of tuberculosis, and is under police scrutiny for disrupting public morals, but he still has a dream of becoming the world billiards champion.”

A trailer for the billiards short film is available to watch here. If you can help locate this film to watch, please contact me directly.