STICKMEN

New Zealand, 2001, 98 minutes, Colour,
Robbie Magasiva, Scott Wills, Paolo Rotondo, Anne Nordhaus.
Directed by Hamish Rothwell.

Stick Men is a raucous New Zealand film - perhaps trying to show that young New Zealanders can be as rowdy as anyone else in the world. The film focuses on three young men who are expert at pool. They are unemployed or looking for jobs. They also have women trouble and tangles. These three strands are paralleled as they try to win an illegal pool competition, experience threats, find that the women are eventually their rivals, come through on a winning streak.

The film is mainly of interest as an example of New Zealand film-making at the beginning of the 21st century. Very much a lowbrow piece of entertainment.

Stickmen could be called a blue collar comedy drama. Its focus is on a group of ordinary men, some employed, some not. Their skill is in pool. (However, with the ambiguity of the title, the film uses playing of pool as an analogy for sex, intercutting sex scenes with the games.)

The film is set in Auckland, with a touch of the underworld. A pool tournament is arranged, an underground tournament with high stakes, presided over by a boss called Daddy.

The three young men are fairly happy-go-lucky types, in and out of love, in and out of wins and defeats in pool.

The film is well enough acted – and won several New Zealand awards for screenplay and direction. However, it is not a particularly interesting or entertaining film – except for those who enjoy company in poolrooms.

1.Impact of the film? For what audience? New Zealand? Worldwide?

2.The city setting, the poolrooms, the brothel, the flats? The bars? Authentic? A blue collar world?

3.The title, pool, sex?

4.The introduction to the characters: Jack, Wayne, Thomas? Their skills at pool? Their friendship? Sexual relationships? The pressure for them on the games, the competitions? With the team emphasising camp and gay? With the other teams? The individual characters, strengths and weaknesses, Jack and his relationship, leadership? Wayne, his job in driving the prostitutes, interactions with women? Thomas, his breaking up, his relationship with Sarah, his not being reliable for the games? Strong portraits?

5.The women, Sarah, her relationship with Thomas? Karen and Jack? The women and their following the pool games, their support?

6.Daddy, his domination, the loans, Dave and the bar, not making money, his thumb cut off, torture? The Maori spokesman? Addressing the audience? Explaining the situations? His being called the Man in Black?

7.The peripheral characters, the habitués of the bar, of the poolrooms? The madam, the prostitutes?

8.A light-touch look at the underground world of a New Zealand city?