Tag Archives: billiards movies

Sixball

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If you’re not familiar with the rules of the Korean billiards game sixball, you’re not alone. It’s rarely mentioned as one of the standard variants of carom billiards, and even among Koreans, it takes a backseat to its far more popular cousin fourball.  In fact, until I stumbled across a decade-old post on AZ Billiards Forum about the game, I wasn’t sure it was real. But, while the rules may still be opaque to me, the game clearly exists, which makes Sixball, the latest entry into the billiards movie canon, all the more interesting and enjoyable.

Perhaps anticipating that movie viewers would be unfamiliar with the sport, the film opens with a voice-over overview of the rules (and what I can only imagine is a tip of the hat to Martin Scorsese, who used the same technique 36 years ago to describe nineball in the opening scene of The Color of Money.)

    1. First, memorize the point value of your card.
    2. Once each player’s card is set, the game begins. The goal is to use the six balls to make shots that continually lower your total points until you perfectly land on the point value of your card.
    3. When the first shot hits the black ball, and then collides with the other colored balls, each worth different points, points for the ball hit will be dropped.
    4. But, if you miss the black ball, of if you hit multiple colors in the same turn, then you lose your turn. Avoid these mistakes to keep dropping points.
    5. Your final point total has to match the points on your card. That’s the only way to win.

Released in May 2020, this South Korean feature-length film from director Chae Ki-jun focuses on Sung-hoon (Lee Dae-han), a one-time aspiring professional billiards player whose dreams were shattered (and hand was broken) after getting cheated in a game of sixball by the gangster Mr. Yong (Hong Dal-pyo).

Retired from the sport, Sung-hoon is eventually lured back to billiards by his friend, who promises him the opportunity to make easy money betting in doubles billiards. As the winnings come in, Sung-hoon attracts the attention of a local pool hall house manager, Ms. Kim (Kang Ye-bin), who recruits him to be part of her stable of players. Unbeknownst to Sung-hoon, Ms. Kim works for Mr. Yong. So, when Sung-hoon prioritizes a former love interest over an easy billiards mark, leaving Ms. Kim holding the debt, it is Mr. Yong who steps in seeking reparations. And it is Sung-yoon who finds himself with the perfect revenge opportunity, if he can survive his billiards match. The Korean trailer is available to watch here.

The plot is so formulaic it’s almost risible, but as someone who’s watched my share of straight-to-TV, 2AM, gangster revenge films, I’m not complaining. And Sixball makes a few bets that pay off.

First, Sixball is all about billiards. Sure, there’s a budding, uninteresting love story happening in the shadows, but the billiards is front and center.  The game of sixball bookends the film, while the middle is packed with straight rail carom billiards matches.  Since the sport is played on a pocketless table, the movie cannot rely on the standard flash of balls getting pocketed in rapid succession or multi-ball trick shots; instead, attention is paid to nuanced single shots in which the cue ball adroitly makes contact with the two object balls.

Sixball also succeeds in making the gangster Mr. Yong a truly memorable and brutal on-screen villain. If you still get shivers thinking about Le Chiffre punishing the testicles of James Bond in Casino Royale; if you shudder picturing Dr. Szell perform dental torture on Dustin Hoffman in Marathon Man; if you get disturbing flashbacks of Derek Vinyard stomping an unsuspecting black man’s teeth into the pavement in American History X; then prepare to turn away as Mr. Yong performs a horrifying form of billiards torment on another sixball loser.  I’m still hearing the sound of teeth breaking.

The movie also layers on the voyeurism and fetishism of women, whose décolletage and skintight micro-skirts feature almost prominently as the billiards.  Most of this is for show, especially if it means our hormonal billiards studs may occasionally miss a shot as they are distracted by these pneumatic women. But, they are also portrayed as very capable billiards players; in fact, Sung-hoon’s final revenge requires convincing his love interest to pick up a cue stick once more.

Speaking of the climax, while there is never any doubt about the outcome of the final match, it is well-executed, including one jaw-dropper of a shot, and brings a satisfying conclusion both to Mr. Yong’s reign and to the film.

Sixball is available to stream for on AmazonPrime.

Petrichor

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Franz Schubert’s Winterreise, completed in 1827, consists of 24 “truly terrible songs, which affected [him] more than any others.” Composed almost entirely in minor keys, the songs and lyrics sound sad, detailing not only the fateful journey of a nameless narrator, but also evoking Schubert’s own personal condition, having recently contracted syphilis. He died just one year later.[1]

The coda to Winterreise is “Der Leiermann” (The Hurdy Gurdy Man). It is about the narrator’s despair and the complete deterioration of his mental state. The lyrics, written by Wilhelm Müller, mention a man who “with numb fingers, plays the best he can…no one wants to listen, no one looks at him.”

It is in words, sound, and spirit, the perfect song to ominously flow through director Louis-Jack’s 16-minute film, Petrichor, completed in mid-2020 and currently on the festival circuit.  The movie is a haunting snapshot of a washed-up, former snooker wunderkind preparing for his final match and unable to accept his career ended some time ago.

From the opening piano chords of “Der Leiermann,” Petrichor evokes a disturbing, spectral sensation. The viewer is intently and intimately focused on a snooker table, but the experience is slightly unnatural. The camera pans right to left and a bodiless, white-gloved referee completes the rack, even as a light dust falls over the baize.

After the film’s title is revealed, the movie abruptly cuts to the backside of a balding man, probably in his 50s, with greasy hair, an unshaven face, and a disturbing paunch drooping over his mustard-colored underwear, the only clothing the man has on. He looks jaundiced, smoking a cigarette, and splashing vodka into a used plastic water bottle that he uncaps with his teeth. He’s in some sort of industrial bathroom, talking to a man in the mirror. The viewer does not want to be in the room, and neither does he.

The viewer soon learns this man is Liam “Lightning” Daniels (played by Paul Kaye, who Game of Thrones fans will recognize as Thoros of Myr), a three-time world snooker championship finalist, the People’s Champion, the Force of Nature.  Daniels enters the snooker hall to the sound of a roaring crowd, but like the man in the mirror, it’s all in his head, as the dreary room houses maybe 10 people, including his opponent.

I won’t share more about what happens, but the ending is shot as beautifully as the opening. The viewer hovers above Daniels, watching him play, but also watching him fade ever farther into the distance. (A special shout-out to “The Cream of Devon” Andy Hicks, who is credited as both a snooker consultant on the film and the stunt double for Mr. Kaye.)

Petrichor is intentionally unsettling and spookish. This is not a love letter to snooker, though the director has shared that “before he even knew the rules, he was utterly mesmerized by [snooker] on TV.” Rather, this is a film about the “psychological warfare on the table, a life lived from a suitcase and relentless losses that have left [Daniels] a shell of a man.” Louis-Jack continues:

“Snooker has an incredible history of amazing characters. Many of the most compelling players to watch – the mercurial geniuses of the green baize – have experienced severe mental illness and volatile personal lives…I thought that a portrait of a snooker player would not only make for thrilling drama but could, in turn, be a powerful vehicle for exploring mental illness.”[2]

It doesn’t take much Googling to confirm Louis-Jack’s assessment of the damaging effect snooker can have on individuals’ mental health. The five-time world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan is probably the sport’s most vocal critic. During various parts of his magnificent career, Mr. O’Sullivan has been heavily involved in alcohol and drugs as a way to combat his self-coined “snooker depression.” Speaking to BBC’s Don’t Tell Me the Score podcast last year, Mr. O’Sullivan said: “Snooker is a really hard sport, and if I had my time over again, I definitely wouldn’t choose snooker as a sport to pursue.”[3]

Mark Allen, who won the Triple Crown title at the 2018 Masters tournament, has been similarly outspoken, directly linking his depression to his life as a long-distance snooker player.  So too have snooker professionals Martin Gould and Michael White shared their struggles with the illness. In fact, the issue became so prominent that in 2017 the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) announced partnerships with both Talking Solutions Ltd and with the SOS Silence of Suicide group to support snooker players struggling with mental health issues.

Research has shown that social isolation and depression are closely linked. Therefore, is it really a surprise that snooker players, who are constantly traveling and practicing alone, are at greater risk of suffering from depression than other athletes, especially those who play on teams or who are supported by coaches and trainers?

While Petrichor is not yet publicly available to watch, you can see the trailer here. I hope that the film’s release and reception not only accelerate Louis-Jack and writer Kenneth Emson’s plans to develop a feature-length version, but also continue to amplify the discussion around depression in professional sports.  No one may want to listen to or look at the Hurdy Gurdy Man, but his story needs to be told.

[1]      “Decoding the Music Masterpieces: Schubert’s Winterreise,” The Conversation, August 28, 2017.

[2]      Louis-Jack is quoted in a pre-release article published in It’s Nice That, July 17, 2018.

[3]      “Ronnie O’Sullivan health: Snooker champ discusses how the sport caused his depression,” Express, December 15, 2020

Table Plays – “The Waiting Game”

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In the arts, billiards and death are often interlocked.

“A Game of Pool,” the 1961 episode of The Twilight Zone, pits the best living pool player against the best dead pool player in a contest where the winner earns the title of greatest pool player ever, and the loser forfeits his life.

Two years later, in the poem “We Real Cool,” Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Gwendolyn Brooks tells the story of seven pool players at the Golden Shovel: “We Real cool. | We Left school. | We Lurk late. | We Strike straight. | We Sing sin. | We Thin gin. | We Jazz June. | We Die soon.”

The aptly-titled anime short film Death Billiards, created in 2013, focuses on two men who must compete for their lives in a game of pool. The gotcha is they’re both already dead and the match is to determine who is headed for heaven or hell.

Into this global smorgasbord of billiards macabre we should add “The Waiting Game,” a 30-minute television drama that aired in November 2008 on Maori Television in New Zealand. “The Waiting Game” was one-sixth of Table Plays, a grassroots series of low-budget dramas, funded by NZ On Air, that paired emerging writers with established directors, and relied on local crews, actors, and settings.

Written by Rebecca Tansley and directed by Anna Marbrook, “The Waiting Game” envisions purgatory as a one-table snooker room where two players compete.  The winner gets to live, the loser moves on. The episode focuses on a match between a distraught single mother (Eilish Moran), who has just arrived and refuses to believe her fate will be resolved by a snooker game, and a celebrated TV actor (Ben Farry), who is impatient to get back to his life.  But, a lot of conversation and soul-searching can occur over a game of snooker, and while the winner of the match may be obvious, the outcome is less so.

Due to the cramped locale and the tight ping-pong of dialogue among the two players, and the third character, a Purgatory rule enforcer-cum-maître d’ (Rima Te Wiata), “The Waiting Game” feels more like a one-act theater production than a television episode. And, while I wish the snooker-playing had been far more convincing, I appreciated the original storyline and its ability to create tension independent of the match.

But, I have to admit to a strong degree of bias, for a good degree of my viewing joy was attributable to the circuitous journey I had locating the episode and the most amiable and facilitative cast of individuals who contributed to my quest.

That search first began in early 2019 when I reached out the writer Ms. Tansley. Replying immediately, she shared that she did not have a copy of “The Waiting Game” but encouraged me to connect with Richard Thomas, the executive producer of Table Plays and a 30-year veteran of New Zealand television production.

Unable to reach Mr. Thomas, I put the search on the backburner for about a year until last April, when I attempted to find a different inroad, this time by contacting the New Zealand Film Commission. The people at NZFC could not have been friendlier, and while they too couldn’t connect me to Mr. Thomas, they did put me in touch with the director, Ms. Marbrook.

Ms. Marbrook graciously shared with me more history about “The Waiting Game” and then added that the master file had been sent to the local television station in Dunedin, New Zealand, as they did a subsequent airing of the full Table Plays series.

After some further on-the-ground sleuthing by Ms. Marbrook and Ms. Tansley, they encouraged me to reach out to 39 Southern Television, the local station formerly known as Dunedin Television and Channel 9. That prompt led me to connect with Luke Chapman, the Production Manager, who warmly recalled working on the show and the “clever script from Rebecca.” Mr. Chapman indicated he only had “The Waiting Game” on DVD. After ascertaining my intentions were good, Mr. Chapman agreed to convert the DVD into a format I could watch. Two months later, he published in the July 26 Otago Daily Times (which, in addition to 39 Southern Television, is owned by Allied Press) a link to the episode. You can now watch it here.

Thank you to everyone who helped me locate “The Waiting Game.” As was often written to me during the numerous email exchanges, kia ora tatou.

Break

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For more than two years leading up to its release, Break, the directorial debut from British actor Michael Elkin, has been summarily described as “Rocky with a snooker cue.”

Break promotional poster for movieThat’s a bold pronouncement. The original Rocky, filmed in 1976, won Best Picture and Best Director, and earned its lead, Sylvester Stallone, a Best Actor nomination. The movie spawned five sequels, plus two spin-off Creed sequels. In total, the film series has grossed more than $1.7 billion dollars worldwide, an amount that will only grow if the anticipated Creed III and untitled Rocky ‘epilogue film’ become realities.

While the success and achievements of Rocky may be a tad out of reach for Break, the comparison does serve some purpose. Rocky captivated audiences by telling the story of Rocky Balboa, a small-time, washed out, boxer who is given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to prove his worth, aided by the romantic love of a woman and the hard-knocks love of a gym trainer.

Similarly, in Break, Spencer Pryde (Sam Gittins), is an inner city London delinquent who wastes his life drug-dealing and committing petty crimes. He also happens to be a snooker prodigy, who could hit centuries by the age of thirteen. But, those skills, which might offer him a path out of his bleak existence, are squandered until the intervention of an absentee father (Luke Mably), a former professional snooker player (David Yip), and a budding romantic interest (Sophie Stevens). Collectively, they provide him with the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a clean “break.”

Break promotional poster for movieAs other reviewers have noted, this “tale of the underdog defying the odds” is well-worn on the silver screen – and not just in Rocky.[1] This Sporting Life and When Saturday Comes are better-known films that trace the evolution of a hot-tempered yobbo whose athletic prowess ultimately allows him to overcome social obstacles and inner demons.

In other words, Break is pretty clichéd, though that doesn’t mean it’s not an entertaining 107 minutes. The acting is solid and earnest; the script maintains its momentum to its formulaic culmination at the Beijing snooker championship; and it’s impossible not to enjoy Rutger Hauer, in his final role, owning his small amount of screen time as the local crime overlord.

It’s also hard not to appreciate the decade-long trek it took to bring Break to the silver screen or the gritty, entrepreneurial efforts to release the film in the middle of a pandemic. The filmmakers ultimately opted to showcase the movie this past July at the Brent Cross Drive-In Club in northwest London, breaking ground as the first film to premiere during the UK’s lockdown.

Break promotional poster for movieHowever, back to that troubling tagline…

Rocky is an incredible story, a heartfelt drama, a pugilist fable, a contrast in characters. And, it is also an exhilarating, emotionally wrenching boxing film. The movie loves boxing, and audiences, in turn, fell in love with boxing, from the famous training sequences to the knock-‘em-sock-‘em finale.

Even professional boxers love Rocky. Watching Rocky II with film critic Roger Ebert, Muhammad Ali declared, “A great movie…a big hit. It has all the ingredients. Love, violence, emotion. The excitement never dulled.”  Commenting further on Rocky’s nemesis, Ali said, “Apollo Creed, the way he dances, the way he jabs, the way he talks…That’s me.”[2]

In comparison, Break never really shows any connection to snooker. The audience is asked to trust that Spencer is a snooker wunderkind, but we never see or feel this innate ability that resides under his anger. Qiang is his assigned trainer, but the relationship feels forced. It has none of the genuine emotion that made Burgess Meredith’s performance as Mickey so heartfelt in Rocky.  Snooker really only becomes central to the movie in the final championship, and by then it’s too late.

Break promotional poster for movieIn a 2018 interview with me, Elkin shared that he was aware that too little snooker and the film loses its authenticity and narrative thread; too much snooker and moviegoers will grow restless with the slow pace.

In an attempt to straddle that line, Elkin injects a number of authentic elements into Break, such as filming at the Crucible in Sheffield, home to the World Snooker Championship since 1977, and enabling cameos by some famous snooker players, including Liang Wenbo, Jack Lisowski, and Ken Doherty.

But, a famous venue and a couple blink-or-you’ll-miss-them cameos, does not make for a compelling snooker film. Break may be about Spencer with snooker cue, but for snooker fans, the wait continues until we get our Rocky.

Break is available to watch on Amazon. You can watch the trailer here.

[1]      http://echochamber.online/2020/08/06/breaking-good-underdog-story-forms-a-disorderly-cue/

[2]      https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/watching-rocky-ii-with-muhammad-ali

The Billiards Industry Needs Its Bobby Brady

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In 1966, at the age of just seven years old, a child pool prodigy named Jean Balukas appeared on the popular American panel game show, I’ve Got a Secret.  She befuddled the judges, who were unable to guess her “occupation.” The notion of a bambino billiards player was too outrageous to consider. 

The good news is Balukas was no flash in the pan. She became the youngest inductee into the Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame, and she is widely considered one of the best players of the twentieth century. 

But, sadly, the judges’ incredulity that someone so young could excel in pool has proven to be eerily prescient. Billiards has struggled to generate interest or gain acceptance among children.  While it’s hard to find recent data, the National Sporting Goods Association’s 2013 study indicated that just 800,000 children (ages 7-11) had picked up a cue stick and they were half as likely to participate in billiards as the national population.  (By comparison, almost five times as many similarly-aged children participate in bowling.) 

With overall billiards participation in historical decline, the sport, tarnished by its pool hustling, barroom underbelly reputation, is in desperate need of new blood. The opportunity to start anew with a younger demographic is tantalizing. But, the question is how? 

The representation of pool in pop culture can move the popularity needle, as billiards cinephiles know well. After the release of The Hustler in 1961, sales of pool equipment skyrocketed and the number of pool halls in the US doubled. Similar spikes in interest occurred after The Color of Money was released in 1986. 

Brady Bunch - The HustlerUnfortunately, to the extent movies and television could ever be a bellwether for tween/teen billiards interest, the cultural pickings are slim.  Perhaps, the most famous child player on TV was Bobby Brady from The Brady Bunch. In “The Hustler” episode, Bobby is a disciple of the sport, practicing constantly, beating his brothers in nine ball, and predicting he will one day become “pool champ of the whole world.” Bobby dreams about pool, shooting while blindfolded and making famous trick shots, such as the six ball “Butterfly.” He even hustles his father’s work colleague out of 256 packs of chewing gum. For a fleeting moment, Bobby could have been his generation’s cultural pool avatar. But that was almost 50 years ago! 

Since that 1974 episode, I have surfaced just five TV episodes or movies that prominently feature kids playing pool.  In 1989, a 10-year old girl, who is actually a robot (!), shows her billiards excellence in “Minnesota Vicki” from Small Wonder. One year later, Stephen Urkel from Family Matters proved his mathematical genius could translate into billiards acumen in “Fast Eddie Winslow.” Then, in the 1996 “Student Court” episode of Saved by the Bell: New Class, high schooler Katie Patterson scored big with her trick shots. Fast forward another eight years and Drake Parker is a pool powerhouse in the “Pool Shark” episode of Drake & Josh. 

While these episodes may have garnered a few snickers, they did not have cultural resonance and certainly none had an impact on children’s billiards habits.  Incredibly, among movies, the landscape is even more barren; the only movie I could find that features a child player is the barely watchable 2020 film Walkaway Joe about a deadbeat dad and his 14-year-old pool-playing son, Dallas.  

In the New Year issue of BCA Insider, Daniel Bastone provided some great, tactical insights about how to appeal to younger customers. But, if billiards is truly going to have a sporting chance of gaining popularity among Generations Z and Alpha, then the industry needs to move beyond miniaturized pool tables or Ewa Laurance doing “how to teach billiards to kids” videos for parents. The sport needs a pop cultural makeover. The sport needs its next Bobby Brady. 

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This article was originally written for and printed in BCA Insider (November 1, 2020). 

Top 10 Pool Players Playing Pool in Movies

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As this is my 200th blog post, I wanted to honor the men and women who aim to bring credibility to the billiards movie genre.  Of course, this objective is presumably shared by everyone. But, it’s the professional billiards players, who periodically pop up, or occasionally star, in the films and television shows that can bring real cred to the production.

Yes, many work their magic behind the camera as technical advisors, constructing shots and coaching actors on their stance and stroke.  But, it’s one thing to be off-camera; it’s a whole another to be the on-screen protagonist.  So, let’s tap our cue sticks as we countdown the Top 10 Pool Players Playing Pool in Movies.

Note: This list intentionally excludes those players who appeared on reality shows (e.g., The Hustlers; Sharks), game shows (e.g., Big Break; Ballbreakers), documentaries (e.g., Ronnie O’Sullivan – American Hustle), commercials, or pretty much any show that is not fictional and intended purely for entertainment. Moreover, in case it’s not obvious, this list is no way attempts to rank the actual movies; this is purely about the player’s portrayal.

  1. Second ChancePan Xiaoting. In the 2014 Taiwanese film Second Chance, the “Queen of Nine Ball” makes her debut film performance. Playing herself, this former WPA World Nine-ball champion is the final opponent for the film’s unlikely up-and-comer Hsieh Jen-hsiang, who decides the only way to save her pool hall is to compete in the New Century Women’s 9- Ball Championship for the multi-million dollar prize. This movie scores bonus points for additional cameos by “Duchess of Doom” Allison Fisher, “Little Devil Girl” Kim Ga-Young, Kelly Fisher, Jennifer “9mm” Barretta, Chieh-Yu Chou, Jasmin Ouschan, and Cha Yu-ram.
  1. HeartbreakEwa Mataya Laurance. One of the most highly visible players, “The Striking Viking” has won some of the top world championships; claimed top prize at the Women’s Trick Shot Challenge; appeared on the cover of The New York Times Magazine; and been inducted into the Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame.  No wonder she made for a formidable final opponent in the 2019 film Heartbreak, even if the outcome of that movie’s Southeast Women’s 9-Ball Tour was both predictable and absurd. Extra points for cameos by Dawn Hopkins and Shanelle Loraine.
  1. Steve Davis. In the 1980s, no name was more associated with snooker than Steve Davis, who won six world titles and held the world number one ranking for seven consecutive seasons. By 2010, his name was less familiar, which is why casting him to promote the energy drink Thunder Muscle in multiple episodes of The Incredibly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret is so brilliant.  In the initial episode, Davis negotiates hard for a £50,000 endorsement deal. I wonder how that compares to what he earned in real life for promoting Heinz Baked Beans?
  1. Marcello Lotti. “The Dark One,” as Lotti was nicknamed by his fans, was one of the major pool players in 5-pin and 9-pin (also known as goriziana) from the mid-60s to the mid-80s. He won nine Italian titles, and then upped his international recognition by playing Scuro, the reigning goriziana player, in the billiards movies Io, Chiara e lo Scuro (1982) and Casablanca, Casablanca (1985). Fans of The Hustler will appreciate how Lotti’s character is modeled after Jackie Gleason’s Minnesota Fats in everything from his impeccable attire to his gentlemanly aura.
  1. The cast of The Baltimore Bullet. If there ever was a film that doubled-down on casting billiards professionals, it was Robert Ellis Miller’s 1980 flop The Baltimore Bullet. The prosaic plot is not worth repeating here. But, if spying pool players on film is your jam, then keep your eyes open for “Captain Hook” Mike Sigel, Willie Mosconi, “The Miz” Steve Mizerak, Jimmie “Pretty Boy Floyd” Mataya, “Machine Gun Lou” Butera, Irving “The Deacon” Crane, Allen Hopkins, Pete Margo, “Cool Cat” Ray Martin, Jim Rempe, and Richie Florence.
  1. Legend of the DragonJimmy White. By 1991, “The Hurricane” had won the Classic twice, the Grand Prix, the British Open, and the Canadian Masters; he had also been a runner-up to the World Snooker Championship on three separate occasions. So, it’s all the more amazing that 1991 also marked his film debut, playing the yakuza’s hired gun in the Stephen Chow film Legend of the Dragon. Director Danny Lee provides ample opportunity for White to show off his incredible masse, spin, and shot-making skills, culminating in a final match that combines billiards and karate-like aerodynamics. You’ll just have to watch it.
  1. The Color of MoneyKeith McCready. As Grady Seasons in The Color of Money, McCready uttered one of the most famous lines in billiards cinematic history as he runs the table on Tom Cruise’s character Vincent: “It’s like a nightmare, isn’t it? It just keeps getting worse and worse.” Known for his colorful, entertaining style of play, McCready, aka “Earthquake,” was selected for the role after the film’s director and casting director saw him engaged in a stakes game with Efren Reyes. Other players contributing to the movie’s authenticity include “The Professor” Grady Mathews, Steve Mizerak, and Jimmie Mataya.
  1. Willie Mosconi. “Mr. Pocket Billiards,” who was one of the first inductees into the BCA Hall of Fame, and who won the World Straight Pool Championship an unmatched fifteen times, only appears in The Hustler for just a few seconds, so be careful not to blink at the wrong time. In a match against Fast Eddie Felson, Minnesota Fats yells, “Willie, hold the stake money,” and there is the legend himself.  Lest that undermine his contribution, Mosconi was also Paul Newman’s technical advisor, paving the way for the greatest billiards movie ever to appear on the silver screen.
  1. 9-Ball with Jennifer Barretta - Billiards MovieJennifer Barretta. Making a cameo or having a bit role is one thing; headlining a film requires quite another set of skills. And while the 2012 movie 9-Ball failed to generate the enthusiasm that the APA, WPBA, and BCA had hoped, it certainly demonstrated that Barretta, with her on-screen comfort and movie-star looks, could carry a film. As Gail, Barretta shows the mettle of a pool prodigy determined to avoid the hustling lifestyle and become a legitimate, professional player. Allison Fisher and Jeanette “Black Widow” Lee also lend their star power to this film.
  1. Efren “Bata” Reyes. It is impossible to imagine this list ending with anyone other than “The Magician,” a winner of over 70 international titles and possibly the best player in the world. Somehow, amidst all those titles, Reyes also starred in the 2003 Filipino film Pakners about two men from different backgrounds who team up to win a billiards challenge. Other players showing off their strokes in the film include Marcus “Napoleon” Chamat and Bengt Jonasson. Reyes would later start in the 2007 short film Nineball.

In creating this list, I intentionally had to pass over many other players who have brought their pool prowess to films and television.  The following folks also deserve honorable mention:

Did I omit anyone?  Let me know by adding it to the comments!

Billiards Short Films Around the World (Part 3)

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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.

https://youtu.be/VuamMrSF6hM

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.

 

Game

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My billiards short films pilgrimage has allowed me to crisscross the planet, from Alberta, Canada (Penance) to Australia (The Billiards Room); from Sweden (Biljardkundgen) to Argentina (Maltempo); from Brazil (Inglorious Billiards) to Japan (Death Billiards).  Yet, in all my cinematic searches and layovers over the past seven years, I had never unearthed a billiards film from any of the 54 countries within the African continent.

That is, until two months ago, when I stumbled across Game, a 2017 movie shot in Buea, Cameroon. The 28-minute short film stars and is written and directed by Cyril Nambangi, a Cameroonian filmmaker currently living in the United States.

Mr. Nambangi plays Marcus, an individual bored with his day job who understands that one can learn a lot about women and specifically their habits and vulnerabilities by reviewing their social media presence. Marcus is attracted to Fesse (Nsang Dilong), a woman he knows but has never engaged with. Realizing from her Facebook posts that she recently ended a relationship and now frequents a local pool hall, he intentionally stops by. When the pool hall’s reigning loud-mouth champion pompously beats her in a game of billiards, he seizes his chance to dethrone the champion and impress Fesse. The gambit works, as Marcus humiliates the champion with a deft jump shot in the first game and sinking the 8-ball on a one-handed break in the second game.  Fesse becomes immediately attracted, and the rest is history.

The social media stalking plot is a bit cringe worthy, and while there is a lot of pool-playing in the film, it’s filmed rather uninterestingly, with the exception of the aforementioned shots. I found the most enjoyable parts of the film were the close-ups on Buea nightlife, as the streets, cuisine, and energy made the movie feel wonderfully authentic.

But, sometimes, the appeal of a film can be magnified by knowing its origins. Such is the story behind the making of Game, as recounted to me during a Zoom interview with Mr. Nambangi. “Film making in Africa? You just have to adapt,” he explained teasingly.

Let’s start with the impetus for the movie. Mr. Nambangi shared, “I am an amateur pool player and film maker….I do know how to shoot pool, all the guys in the film are my friends still based in Cameroon.  Whenever we meet, there is a big competition, everyone thinks they are the best player… [I came up with] a story that ties into that, [so I didn’t] need to train actors how to play pool. I did it in reverse: I got pool players then trained them how to act.”

Armed with his idea and cast, the next question was where to film within the town of Buea. A local university provided an unoccupied performing arts space to Mr. Nambangi for one night only to convert into a pool hall, so long as he could outfit it with the necessary pool table and seating.

But in Buea, there are only two locations that have functional pool tables, and people are shooting on them around the clock because “pool is the club’s money maker.” One of those locations is a club managed by three brothers. Incredibly, Mr. Nambangi got approval from the middle brother to borrow the pool table and some matching stools for the evening, so he picked up the equipment in a rented truck and transported it to the university for the shoot.

Fesse (Nsang Dilong)

After filming wrapped at 2AM, three members of Mr. Nambangi’s crew attempted to return the pool table. But, when they arrived, a different manager was on duty and he claimed he knew nothing about the missing table and stools, so he called the police, assuming his club had been robbed. He had the crew members promptly arrested. It would take lawyers working through the twilight hours to get them out of jail.

Around the same time the crew members were getting arrested for returning the table, Mr. Nambangi’s trio of local actresses (“dressed in little minis for their scene”) were heading home in taxis. Mr. Nambangi recounted what happened next:

“As soon as they got out of the taxi, a black maria (i.e., a police van) came up, door swung open, two officers jumped out, and drove off with the girls bringing them to the police station. We went to the police station and were told they were dressed indecently.  But, [the officers] were just looking for some bribery money. They think, ‘Give me something and you can go home.’ The girls were terrified. If you don’t have someone to call, you’re screwed. That’s how it goes for you. The police will keep you there for a couple of days. And those are not conditions where you want to stay.”

Fortunately, Mr. Nambangi was able to grease some hands and get the women released, bringing his night of multiple arrests to a close.

The coda to the film’s production came much later once Mr. Nambangi had competed the film and was trying to get it included at festivals through submission to the now defunct Withoutabox. Out of the blue, he was contacted by Amazon Prime, which offered him the chance to have it featured exclusively within their platform. (Note: IMDB, a subsidiary of Amazon, acquired Withoutabox in 2008.) For a budding filmmaker, the opportunity was irresistible.

The experience has been mostly positive for Mr. Nambangi, though the decision has come with some tough sacrifices. He explains, “Amazon Prime is not available in Cameroon, so my friends could not see the movie, and once on Prime, I could not submit it to festivals.  Everyone who has participated has still not seen the project. I was planning to do a local premiere, but we have a war situation, so I’m not going back there now.”

While it may be some time before his colleagues can watch and appreciate Game, I hope those who do have access to Amazon Prime will spend the half-hour and watch it. The movie is available here.

Billiards Short Films Around the World (Part 2)

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Two Sundays ago, I spent a wonderful afternoon celebrating Father’s Day with my dad and my two children. Not having seen my father since COVID-19 unleashed hell on earth, the day got me thinking about this uniquely special filial relationship.

In my previous blog post, I committed to taking readers around the world with billiards short films. I started with Biljar (Croatia), Biljardkundgen (Sweden), and Penance (Canada). In this post, I continue that global odyssey, with the added nuance of featuring films that address that father-child relationship. Those three films are Maltempo (Argentina), Breakin Balls (USA) and Break (Czech Republic).

Interestingly, fathers do not physically appear in Maltempo or Breakin Balls, yet they are still central characters, reflecting the ongoing and treasured influence of the paterfamilias. In this way, these films are a welcome departure from better known billiards movies, such as the recent Walkaway Joe or The Baron and the Kid, where deadbeat dads feature so prominently.

Maltempo

Without question, the 21-minute Maltempo, released in October of 2016, is the best among this trinity of billiards short films.  The setting is Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1942. Two poor Italian immigrant brothers, Cecilio and Paolo Maltempo, have sold their deceased father’s pocket watch, their last remaining physical memory of him, in order to prevent starvation. Cecilio is hot-headed and irascible. Paolo is thoughtful and even-keeled, his temperament and sensibility more closely aligned with their father’s, as we learn through a backstory told by Paolo to illustrate his father’s kindness (and the watch’s origin).

One evening, the Maltempos are provoked by a pair of rich, insolent Frenchmen, who are now in possession of the prized pocket watch. For a chance to win back the watch, the Frenchmen challenge the brothers to a 30-point match of three-cushion billiards. When the match is 28-25, Paolo is dared to make a game-winning six-cushion shot.  Knowing he can make the shot, Paolo anticipates that his success will result in the Frenchmen’s humiliation. While the Maltempos will win the match, violence will ensue, blood will be shed, and they will lose in the long run. [SPOILER ALERT!] Instead, Paolo invokes his father’s spirit, intentionally just missing the shot so that his opponents can save face. His opponent ultimately understands and repays him by returning the watch.

Directed by Alan Borodvsky, Maltempo is wonderfully filmed and saturated with a gorgeous mix of yellows and browns that evoke the era and the beauty of the locale. Unsurprisingly, Maltempo racked up an impressive dozen awards from the festival circuit.  The full film is available to watch on Sofy TV.

Breakin Balls

To be clear, Breakin Balls is not a good film by any conventional measure. Created in 2016 by first-time writer, producer and leading actress Natalie Pagano, the film focuses on a struggling South Philadelphia couple who enter the St. Patty’s Pool Tournament at J.W Hothead’s, a (real-life) hair salon with a pool table. The stakes are a $2000 prize, which is just enough to save their trailer and feed the future Little Frankie, assuming they can beat their foes, the Sharkey Twins.

Between the amateur acting and the wooden dialogue, Breakin Balls feels like an inside joke that mistakenly escaped the room.  And yet, there is something rather heartfelt about the film. Ms. Pagano is upfront that Breakin Balls is a tribute to her father, Anthony Pagano Sr. (aka Mr. P). She says he was an “avid billiards player who was studied by many…had his hustling moments but good heart and kind mannerisms…I was very fortunate to grow up watching my father run balls, he taught me everything I know…this film is in your honor.”

He was also the creator of the “famous” jump rod, Mr. P’s Jumpstick, which features prominently in the film. When Natalie is down in her match, a sultry courier suddenly arrives, bearing the famed stick. This gives Natalie all the power she needs to turn around the match and win the prize, thus also honoring her father.

The final scene, in which all players, opponents, and Hothead’s patrons, convene at the Trailer Park Community Center to dance, giggle, jiggle, and eat billiards-themed cupcakes, shows just how much fun the cast had in making the movie, even if that sentiment can’t be shared by the viewing audience.

Break

Unlike the previous two films, Break is a much more traditional father-child movie. This eight-minute documentary, released in 2012 and directed by Tom Weir, follows 11-year-old Calvin Washburn, and his father, Geoff, who spend alternating weekends together shooting billiards. The movie is available to watch here.

As Geoff only has his son on weekends, and “the pool tournaments are on weekends, so that’s we do.” For the film, that means traveling to a 9-ball competition in Ostrava, Czech Republic, to compete for 4000 Euro (approximately $4500 USD).

The premise has potential. Calvin started shooting pool when he was five, and he comes across as a typical awkward tween who is super comfortable on the table.  But, as a film, Break flounders because there is no tension, suspense or drama. In eight minutes, we don’t get to know Calvin or Geoff or learn much of their relationship.  And, the pool-playing is a bust because after winning his first match, Calvin loses, and then loses again. He may have “pocketed quite a bit of money” over the years, but there’s no joy or interest watching a kid get mopped.

 

To my father, and to all the fathers out there, Happy (belated) Father’s Day.

Billiards Short Films Around the World (Part 1)

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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.

https://youtu.be/7_m5MLUGzaA

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