The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007, USA)

For anyone under the apprehension that geeks can find acceptance and understanding in the company of other geeks . . . maybe this feeling won’t be so strong after seeing The King of Kong. The idea of geek love doesn’t seem to hold true in the world of competitive arcade gaming, though this may have something to do with the nature of hobbies that rely on high scoring as a show of dominance. Then again, perhaps none of us can help behaving like junior high school girls at one time or another.

In The King of Kong, upstart Steve Wiebe threatens to overthrow the original Donkey Kong master, Billy Mitchell. Billy (who looks like a hillbilly Nick Cave) takes Donkey Kong very, very seriously. Steve has no agenda except perhaps finally to find a forum in which he can realize his potential – he’s been recently laid off, which gives him a lot of time to practice. Billy, and by extension his clan of arcade masters, takes Steve’s outsider challenge quite personally, setting himself and the entire group up for some vicious jabs by documentarian Seth Gordon. In this respect, The King of Kong is similar in nature to Chris Smith’s American Movie, which also investigates a world of earnest outsiders. But while some episodes are certainly played for laughs (Steve’s live-play attempt at the record is treated by Billy’s friends as no less serious than the Treaty of Paris), Gordon respects Steve’s good-natured and heartfelt attempt, and generally abstains from poking fun at his hero. Sure, it’s just Donkey Kong, but in the end, the game turns out to be one of the most important episodes in two men’s lives, though it has a very different impact on each.