Read @ Joe’s

Title: Double Down South (2024) Director: Tom Schulman Writer: Tom Schulman Studio: Jackrabbit Media IMDb Plot: In a world of illegal, high-stakes gambling, Nick owns a run-down plantation house. He is enamored with the smart, tough and charming ace Diana’s intent to win big and is determined to stake her. Joe Says: Double Down South successfully chalks up the cue and sinks the 8-ball – even though the play was called well in advance.

The sport of billiards can be easily romanticized into compelling stories. The clack-clack of balls, the knock of the cue, the beaded sweat of concentration from the high-stakes pressure. Pristine, green felt is stretched out for acres in Vegas or New York or AC. Yeah, it is all sexy, man. So Tom Schulman (Dead Poets Society) does the complete opposite for his latest movie, Double Down South. Instead of breaking and sinking, this style of play is keno all racked up in a rundown plantation deep in the south where the gambling runs as sweet as tea and the eruption of violence is much more severe than the clack-clack of balls. Double Down South is entertaining and edgy, yet gets into the swing of things a little too easily.  

Keno, for the uninitiated (and brother, that was me prior to the screening), involves a numbered rack that is laid down on one end of the table. The object – and this is a ridiculously-simple explanation – is to get the ball into the matching hole. You get the bonus circle filled? Cellys abound.  

The always-fun Kim Coates (See For Me, Goon) plays Nick, a former Keno champ who has since strayed down the path of the Dark Side. Now in an old plantation house with his father (veteran actor Tom Bower), far away from the lights of Nashville and Mobile, huddled out in Nowheresville, GA, Nick runs his own game and plays by his house rules. One of those rules? The house always wins – and sometimes that fact needs to be beaten into you. The only thing that runs hotter than Nick’s arm, is his temper. 

  

Diana (Lili Simmons) is a hot up-and-comer who wants to master the sport but not necessarily the hustle. She’s good. And she gets better. Of course, it becomes apparent that if she is not being hustled, then she just might be the one hustling.  

Coates’ Nick is a slimy Mr Miyagi. He knows his stuff but cannot keep his ego in check. Schulman’s script effortlessly allows the actor to keep the mentorship a chalk line away from misogyny. Simmons’s Diana is all sultry-eyed like Anya Taylor-Joy and plays pool like chess. It’s all fun-and-games, but outside of Nick’s outbursts, most of those deep, dark shadows exist solely in rumor. The violence might be momentarily jarring but never becomes a lasting threat. Instead, Schulman focuses on the stories being told. And he offers a bunch, too, providing just enough back stories and teases on Nick, Diana, and Little Nick (Igby Rigney) to set up the finals. 

Schulman gives Double Down South the look and breadth of a championship game. Yang Hua Hu’s edits split the focus from down on the game up, to the drama Diana deals with. Likewise Alan Caudillo wonderfully photographs the movie, brightening the squalor of the dingy room and downright electrifying the game. Schulman stays away from the rock-n-roll montage but also glosses over some of the more stylish shots that could elevate everyone’s game. 

Double Down South successfully chalks up the cue and sinks the 8-ball – even though the play was called well in advance.