Tribeca: The King of Kong
I’m a huge fan of quirky documentaries, especially ones about geeks. Last year’s “Wordplay” was right up my alley (especially given my childhood doing crossword puzzles) and I was looking forward to “King of Kong” this year. I knew it was a documentary about a guy on a quest to set the international high score Donkey Kong, but not much more. So it was a more than pleasant surprise to discover that it was both humorous and a fascinating study in human behavior. The film centers around the attempts of Steve Wiebe to capture the world record, a title held by Billy Mitchell one of the original geeky gods of gaming. Apparently, at some point during Wiebe’s attempts, Mitchell decided that he couldn’t allow this to happen and started channeling “The Plague” from Hackers (seriously, there is just something about Mitchell that reminds me of the dude). He mobilizes the ultra-geek squad, including his close friends from back in the day who started Twin Galaxies (the official arcade game high-score organization) who invalidate Wiebe’s score and show up Steve’s house to search for evidence of cheating.
As a result of this challenge to his integrity, Wiebe goes off to Funzone arcade for an official event with Twin Galaxies, to prove that his high score was real and to face off against Mitchell. Everything is set for an epic geek showdown, except Mitchell doesn’t show. Instead, he stays down in Florida, bunkered up in his home, directing his minions by phone. The access that the film makers got was incredible. They got lucky in two ways: Mitchell has a huge ego and obviously loved having cameras on him at all times and his friends at Funzone often forgot that they were mic’d, allowing the documentarians to capture some incredible back and forth conversations.
In the end, the film is about a really good guy’s quest to prove that not only is he the best at Donkey Kong, but that he isn’t the sort of person who would cheat. There are definite redemption overtones here as Wiebe strives to set the record and to come to terms with Billy Mitchell’s refusal to play him head-to-head whilst manipulating all the people around him. In the end, the fact that it is about Donkey Kong is almost irrelevant. What it is really about is the emotions that drive people (all people, not just geeks) to compete and how being the best can become something unhealthy and counterproductive.
The documentary benefits from having such a theatrical villain as Mitchell. Mitchell clearly suffers from a case of ‘taking-himself-way-to-seriously’ and the resultant posturing and scheming is almost unbelievable. If this had been a fictional film, no one would have believed his character. But because it is real, it just goes to prove that reality can be much more entertaining than anything Hollywood can dream up. This film was a clear five out of five and is playing again on Monday at 9:45pm, Wednesday at 8pm, and Saturday the 5th at 5pm. Go see it. Even if you don’t like video games.