Tickets, Please: A Quick Trip Back in Time

If you're looking for a sprawling epic, keep moving. Tickets, Please is essentially a brief, caffeinated sprint through a transit hub that will either charm you with its simplicity or leave you wondering why you spent the time watching it. It’s for the folks who like their cinema to feel like a dusty postcard found in a coat pocket. 🚂

Roy Mack is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. You can practically see him trying to keep the momentum from bottoming out every time the camera cuts. It’s not exactly high art, but there’s a certain grit to the way the scenes transition that feels surprisingly modern, even if it’s clearly dated by about a century.

There’s a specific bit where the crowd control goes completely sideways that reminded me of the frantic, messy energy in Pop Goes the Easel. It isn't as polished, sure. But it has that same feeling of "we're just going to keep filming until the film runs out."

Why does the inspector look so stressed? Maybe he’s just tired of the commute. I get it. We’ve all had days where you just want to get to the destination and not have to deal with the logistics of it all.

• That one guy in the back wearing the hat that's definitely two sizes too big.
• The pacing feels like it was edited with a pair of rusty kitchen scissors.
• The lighting in the station has this weird, flickering quality that makes everything look a bit haunted.

It’s not as refined as The Private Life of Helen of Troy, but then again, it’s not trying to be. It’s just a guy dealing with tickets. Sometimes the most interesting films are the ones that don't try to change your life. They just want to show you a train station for a few minutes. Mission accomplished, I guess? 🎫

I wouldn't call it a masterpiece. But I also wouldn't tell you to avoid it. Just don't go in expecting to find the meaning of existence. Sometimes a ticket is just a ticket, and a train is just a place where you stand around waiting for something to actually happen.