Dumb-Bell Letters No. 23: Watching people write bad mail

Is it worth your time?

If you get a kick out of reading old junk mail and seeing just how confused folks were in the pre-internet age, you’ll probably find this charming. If you’re looking for a plot, or character arcs, or anything resembling a coherent movie, you will be bored to tears within five minutes. 🙄

It’s essentially a slideshow of incompetence. People really did write these things, and that’s the only reason it holds any water at all.

The vibe

There’s this odd, almost clinical rhythm to the whole thing. It doesn't try to be a masterpiece, and honestly, it’s better for it. It feels like someone just dumped a box of old mail on a table and started filming it with a shaky hand.

Some of the letters are so genuinely baffling that you wonder if the writers were living on a different planet. One guy writes in asking about a product in a way that makes you think he’s never actually seen a store before.

Bits and pieces

• The pacing is frantic, mostly because the film just wants to move to the next 'lollapalooza' of a letter.
• The silence between the readings is surprisingly heavy.
• I kept thinking about It Pays to Advertise and how much more polished that feels by comparison. This one is just raw, unfiltered confusion.

Is it great cinema? Absolutely not. But there’s something honest about it. It’s like watching a train wreck in slow motion, except the train is made of bad grammar and misplaced confidence.

I found myself wondering if any of these people ever got a reply. Probably not. Most of these letters are the kind that end up in a shredder, which makes it feel almost voyeuristic to read them now. 📬

It’s not trying to compete with something like Wednesday's Child, and that’s a good thing. It’s its own weird, tiny thing. Watch it if you want to feel a little smarter than the general population for about twenty minutes.

Or don't. It won't hurt my feelings. Sometimes a movie is just a curiosity, a footnote in a history book that someone decided to film for reasons we’ll never fully understand.