Cinema In Context

Obsessive game competition documentaries. Sarah Watt, Jeremy Downing and William Chen discuss the Netflix+ distributed The Speed Cubers and The King of Kong (2007). We begin by discussing the despicable qualities of the people featured in The King of Kong, particularly Billy Mitchell, and the under-dog qualities of Steve Wiebe. We then talk about the filmmaking and crafting of The King of Kong, particularly the areas where artistic license has been taken, and highlighting the characters of Brian Kuh and Steve Sanders. We move the conversation into The Speed Cubers, highlighting the difference in spirit between the two films, with the more recent film being far kinder than the harsher older film - connecting to our previous episode on Catfish and Tickled. We unpack the focus of the film The Speed Cubers, especially around its lack of focus on speed cubing competitions, with a focus on the relationship between Max and Feliks. We then discuss the films in comparison to other documentary films and documentary ser