Stickmen (2001)

A trio of Kiwis racks up and gets ready to break in Stickmen (2001)––a fast-moving New Zealand indie about a high-stakes underground pool tournament. Likened to Guy Ritchie’s boozy gangster movies by more than one attentive critic, Hamish Rothwell’s thriller follows a Wellington womanizer (Robbie Magasiva) and his two closest chums (Paolo Rotondo and Scott Wills) as they set their sights on the purse in a pool tourney run by a local gangster. The sexual double-entendre of the film’s title isn’t lost on Rothwell, who shows a fondness for inter-cutting cue action with other varieties of racks and balls. Simone Kessell is one of the lovelies who dresses down to shag her stickman.