It's hard to shake the feeling that King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters is some elaborate hoax, possibly even a case of Christopher Guest trying to pass off his latest mockumentary as reality filmmaking. But the truth of the matter is that you simply can't make stuff like this up (although, in typically perverse fashion, a Hollywood remake is reportedly already in the works).
A humble but utterly unique documentary, equal parts real-life Revenge of the Nerds and edge-of-your-seat thriller, King of Kong applies William Burroughs' premise that "the universe is based on war and games" to diehard Donkey Kong devotees, turning their retro-videogame competitions into a cosmic struggle with destiny. And at the center of it all is the mano a mano between two polar opposites: longtime champion Billy Mitchell and challenger Steve Wiebe, a classic rivalry comparable (as one gamer tells us) to Marris and Mantle in their prime, or Heckle and Jeckle.
Wiebe is the hero of the piece, a sweet-natured everyman who just can't catch a break (he was laid off the day he closed on his house) and who comes off so unassuming and, frankly, forgettable that nobody even bothers to pronounce his name correctly (it's Wee-bee, for the record). Mitchell, on the other hand, is a slick, absurdly flamboyant egomaniac, the piece's pitch-perfect villain. Dressed in black and insufferably proud of the Machiavellian mind games he plays at every turn, he's an arrested adolescent who's spent a lifetime passing himself off as a Jedi Knight, a slighter kinder and gentler Darth Vader.
Rounding out this Shakespearian drama of rivalries and alliances are numerous compelling satellite characters from the gaming world, including Mitchell's various henchmen, a self-aggrandizing competitor or two and self-appointed ref/folksinger Walter Day. It all culminates in a flurry of psychic sparks at a Guinness record-setting tournament as the movie morphs, without our even realizing it, from being an amusingly quirky comedy to an altogether engaging drama about people we genuinely care about it.
King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (PG-13) Stars Steve Wiebe, Billy Mitchell, Nicole Wiebe, Walter Day, Brian Kuh, Steve Sanders and Robert Mruczek. Opens Sept. 21 at local theaters. 3.5 stars
This article appears in Sep 19-25, 2007.