Dumb-Bell Letters No. 25: A weird trip through bad spelling

Is this even a movie?

If you enjoy staring at old, grainy footage of people reading things that make your brain hurt, you might find a kick here. For everyone else? It’s probably just a slow descent into pure confusion. Don't come looking for a plot. It's just people reading letters from folks who clearly skipped grammar class entirely. ✉️

It’s definitely not for the high-brow crowd. If you take cinema seriously, stay away. Far away.

The vibe is... strange

The whole thing is built around Juliet Jowell’s collection of "dumb-bell" letters. It’s essentially a 1930s version of a Reddit thread about bad customer service, but with more shoulder pads and static noise. Some of the letters are genuinely funny, but the delivery feels like it's dragging on way past its welcome.

There’s a weird rhythm to the editing that I can't quite pin down. It feels like someone just chopped up a pile of paper and filmed the pieces in order. It lacks the polish you see in something like My American Wife, but maybe that's the point? Or maybe it's just cheap.

• The handwriting on screen is somehow harder to read than the narration.
• I swear the narrator sounds like he’s bored out of his mind.
• The pacing is basically: read, pause, groan, repeat.

It’s a bit like watching Dizzy Daisy, but with less charm and more paperwork. You can feel the movie trying to make these letters feel like a big deal, but half the time the jokes just miss the mark entirely. It’s the kind of thing you’d find at 2 AM on a channel that only plays public domain leftovers.

Honestly, the best part is just imagining the poor secretaries who had to deal with these people back in the day. Painful stuff.

Anyway, I’m done with it. It’s a bizarre curio, but I don’t think I’ll be revisiting it anytime soon. Not unless I want to feel better about my own spelling.