3ft Ball and Souls
It’s a goofy name for an admittedly goofy and yet very entertaining movie. Four strangers in Japan have met on the internet and made a suicide pact. They all gather in a shed with a massive three foot wide firework with the intention of blowing themselves up in the most spectacular fashion. However, when one of them finally pushes the button, reality resets itself to just before they all met in the shed. What’s more, each time they blow themselves up they are able to remember more and more from their last attempt.
This film plays like a very dark version of Groundhog’s Day and is really almost as funny. At the same time, it has an intelligent story that plays like a mystery as they dive into their motives for being there and working out their issues to try and diffuse the loop they find themselves in. Staged like a play, 3FT packs a lot into its one room setting and four person cast.
Adam Ruhl is a writer and life long Cinephile. He is the Executive
Cinema Editor of Pop Culture Beast’s Austin branch; covering festivals,
conventions, and new releases. When not filing reports, Adam can be
found stalking Alamo Drafthouse Programmers for leads on upcoming
DrafthouseFilms titles. Adam once blocked Harry Knowles entrance to a
theater until he was given extra tickets to a Roman Polanski movie.