by Cain Noble-Davies
Worth: $13.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Chad McDaniel
Intro:
... an enjoyably relatable portrait of a man thriving on his own terms.
What comes to mind when you think about the game of pool? The clack of billiard balls as they slam into each other, the occasional sneeze from stray chalk, degrees of sticky flooring, the aggravating gasps that follow sinking the cue ball…
96 Pounds of Dynamite offers a different perspective.
Introduced at the billiard table, 96 Pounds of Dynamite is the story of Chad ‘Shorty’ McDaniel, a competitive pool player born with type III osteogenesis imperfecta. This doco covers a large swathe of the subject’s life, from his difficult birth to his experiences in mainstream schooling to his later-in-life passion for pool.
Coming from backgrounds in broadcast journalism and sports documentaries respectively, director Loren Goldfarb and co-director Ed Coughlin’s presentation of Chad’s life predictably is shot and edited like a TV production. A nice-looking TV production, sure, but there’s a tangibly artificial sheen to the visuals and even the soundtrack that cuts into the authenticity of the story and the person at the centre of it. This is evident right from the start, opening with an ostensible trailer for the film to follow (Netflix style), carrying every hallmark except the cheesy narrator declaring the date of airing.
It is because of this that Chad himself not only ascends beyond the confines of the production values surrounding him but effectively saves the film from feeling entirely superficial. Chad himself has a winning personality, reminiscent of the self-deprecating irreverence of Ricky Berwick and Donavan ‘Cripp Daddy’ Castillo, and his sense of humour and joie de vivre is consistently delightful to watch. While the larger film occasionally gets into dark areas of discussion concerning disability and the treatment of it (hearing Chad describe his birth father blaming his son’s disability on himself… dammit, who’s cutting onions?!), his presence and attitude keeps things from becoming too dour and, more pointedly, too reliant on raw sympathy to make its impact.
While the framing of Chad’s story, his dealings with microscale and macroscale ableism in his community, and finding his sense of belonging in sports, all carry notes of the dreaded I-word (“Inspirational”), the production overall at least solicits that potential reaction from its audience. And it all comes down to how the game of pool is portrayed.
Presented as both a great equaliser of an activity, and genuinely more complicated than it seems, involving applied physics and geometry, it serves as the centrepiece for the film’s grandest statements regarding accessibility and acceptance. From his taking part in the school baseball team, to his aptitude with computing, to the engineering behind his custom-built bridge, the film follows Chad’s own example in never making assumptions about what he can do. It’s just a matter of taking what a person can already do, and finding a niche where they can fit. Even something as seemingly frivolous as pool can be a focal point in a fulfilling life for the right person. We are all at the same table, wielding the same cues, staring down the stick at the same spheres. Making sure we all can reach for what we see is just fair play.
96 Pounds of Dynamite is held back somewhat by its cliched approach to depicting disability and documentary filmmaking in general, but as soon as Chad cracks another solid joke or gives a genuine insight into how he sees the world, such shortcomings are easy to look past. The guy is just fun to watch, to the point where we almost wish this ran for longer. Chad’s interior lack of pretence makes for an enjoyably relatable portrait of a man thriving on his own terms. “I love when people underestimate me. I will eat them alive.”
You can find ways to see 96 Pounds of Dynamite here
