Reely Bernie Faves: King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)

In one corner, you have the defending champion, Billy Mitchell, a restauranteur who sports a mullet so grotesque, the 80s feel shame. In the other corner, you have an out-of-work engineer, Steve Wiebe, who has likable underdog written all over his face. The competition? Nothing else but achieving the high score record for the 1981 arcade game hit, Donkey Kong.

Officiating the match is Billy’s kiss-up and founder of the Twin Galaxies website for video game world records, Walter Day. The odds are very much against Wiebe, and no one in the world would even care about any of this unless they see this documentary.

King of Kong is a slight glimpse into a massive obsession of an age of tactile green circuit boards, PC wires, and dust to blow on when none of it works. This is not the story of today’s gamer on the couch, wearing flannel and smelling of patchouli oil. No, these are the men huddled deep in the dark corner of the Arcade at the mall, getting paler by the hour and losing youthful vision to blinking screens that beg for the next quarter.

I believe any serious gamer or quasi-gamer will understand the need to keep enduring through a level to defeat a “boss” or collect a treasure, but this little documentary follows fixated souls who put their families and jobs on the bottom of the priority list to reach the high score. At times, it is a queasy watch, but there are other moments that are unexpectedly hilarious.

Director Seth Gordon’s King of Kong is entirely aware of its slightness and proves how a small community can receive big attention whenever a camera is used. You truly feel for the humble Steve Wiebe whose kid is playing in the background while he practices on his arcade cabinet in the garage. He’s a nice guy but unhealthily preoccupied. The rub is that Billy Mitchell is so despicable that you just have to root for Steve to pull through.

I’m always fascinated by hubris, and the most telling scene on hubris’s stark potential is when Billy (finally) shows up to meet Steve, but instead of playing Donkey Kong against his challenger, he walks right behind Steve, doesn’t say hello, and then just walks away. The scene is so awkward that laughter becomes the first response.

I don’t want to spoil anything else because this 83-minute gem is definitely worth a viewing. You can bet that the high score records between Steve and Billy constantly flip flop, and there’s a given controversy regarding what exactly constitutes an authentic score: live-viewed or VHS recorded. (There are loopholes to both.)

The whole thing is just so silly yet so serious at the same time. King of Kong is about humility, obsession, gaming, and mullets that won’t quit. Entertaining isn’t the right descriptor.

“Human” is what it is. Unabashedly human.

Please let me know if you’ve seen this wonderful oddball doc!

Reely Bernie Faves:

1. Amadeus (1984)

2. Magnolia (1999)

3. Poltergeist (1982)

4. Pulp Fiction (1994)

5. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

6. The Godfather Part II (1974)

7. Weekend at Bernie’s (1989)

8. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)

9. Goodfellas (1990)

10. Nosferatu (1922)

11. Pollock (2000)

12. Kicking and Screaming (1995)

13. Jaws (1975)

14. Fargo (1996)

15. Citizen Kane (1941)

16. The Blair Witch Project (1999)

17. The Endless Summer (1966)

18. Back to the Future (1985)

19. Angel Heart (1987)

20. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

21. The Goonies (1985)

22. Trainspotting (1996)

23. King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)

24. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

25. Bambi (1942)

26. The Paradise Lost Trilogy (1996-2011)

27. Psycho (1960)

28. Parenthood (1989)

29. Swingers (1996)

30. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

31. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

32. Smoke (1995)

33. Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)

34. A Hard Day’s Night (1964)

35. Edward Scissorhands (1990)

36. City of God (2002)

37. 1917 (2019)

38. Black Swan (2010)

39. School of Rock (2003)

40. Mulholland Drive (2001)

41. Groundhog Day (1993)

42. If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)

43. The Greatest Showman (2017)

44. National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983)

45. The Florida Project (2017)

46. Cinema Paradiso (1988)

47. So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993)

48. Shadowlands (1993)

49. Steve Jobs (2015)

50. ¡Three Amigos! (1986)